Holiday Album of Porings 2006
by Oh Porings
Summary: A collection of oneshots from us at the Oh Porings! forum :D Look for things from Tela, Minane, Halcyon Clouds, Anonymoussi, Hopelessmine and more!
1. Day One Mistletoe Madness

Welcome to the Oh Porings! forum collection! We decided to work on a collection of one-shots for the holiday. We will update every day until December 25. Participants include, but aren't limited to, Minane, Anonymoussi, Hopelessmine and Halcyon Clouds at the moment.

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**Mistletoe Madness**

By Tela

The holidays were one thing Luzien loved. Next to women, of course. The church held a party every year for the holidays but they were notoriously boring. There was one party that was actually _fun_ and it was always held after the church party. One of the other priests and his wife hosted the party but weren't usually around for the festivities. In any case, this was where he was about to go now.

"Oh god! It's freezing!" He gasped as he and a few of the other priests stepped out of the warm church into the snowy and very frigid night. "Hold me, Mariah! Let's share our body heat." He wrapped his arms around the high priestess, his hand wandering where it shouldn't.

"Luz! Get off me!" She groaned, smacking his hands away.

"When I freeze to death, you'll feel bad."

She rolled her eyes and pulled her coat close to her. "Right." The small group included Luzien, Mariah, two priestesses and the high priest, Hiroki. They walked along chatting about the weather and such until they came to a house near the center of town.

They saw a sign on the door, under a wreath, telling guests to come on in so they let themselves inside. They were greeted with cozy warmth and the scent of cinnamon drifting in the air. People had already arrived before them so the party was already underway. "Where's the drinks?" Luz asked, rubbing his frozen hands together to warm them.

After a while and many drinks later, Luzien was teaching Hiro the fine art of chasing women. Normally, Hiroki wouldn't do such a thing. He also didn't think to check just how much alcohol Luzien shoved down his throat. His belly was pleasantly warm and his cheeks had gotten a rosy tinge, he felt really good in fact. There were eyes watching the two high priests act like fools but they were certainly amusing.

"Luuuuz! Hey, hey! Tell them about the—" Hiroki was speaking loudly but paused for a moment and had to remember his words. "The isis!" Luzien laughed and slapped his fellow priest on the back.

"She was the one that got awaaaay! See, we met this isis in the 'mids and me being the suave man that I am, she couldn't resist! Now she, uhh…jus' a sec…right, she came up to me an' was trying to flirt with Hiro an' me! So, I played along 'cause even though she was half a snake, she had a really nice rack. Real nice. Hey man…I gotta sit down. Damn room wants to spin even though I told it not to earlier." He pulled the raven-haired priest with him and they stumbled to the couch. Once settled, he turned back to the amused crowd.

"So what happened, Luz?" Mariah asked, mildly amused and at the same time, very disturbed. He was far from a good example of high priesthood.

"Yeeeah, I decided to see if the snake lady's boobs felt like a human lady's boobs!" He laughed. "They do! Hey Hiro, tell 'em about the um…hey, where'd I leave my drink?"

"C'mon Luz, finish the story!" Hiro laughed. He was lacking inhibitions obviously because he had sworn to himself that this story would never surface.

"Right, riiiight. So I told Hiro to feel 'em but he's a pansy and said no so I pushed him and he fell on her! She wasn't too happy after that and kicked our asses…she sure was hot though. Called me an' Hiro pervs though…dunno why."

"Okay! We have a game to play and anyone who wants to join, come over here so we can blindfold you." The wizard announced. There were murmurs around the room, wondering what game needed blindfolds. Their gazes then followed her pointing finger to the center of the room and toward the ceiling. Mistletoe hung from the ceiling with a bright red ribbon. "You don't get to see who you kiss until _after_ you kiss them."

"This is the best game ever!" Luzien cheered. He was the first one to reach for a blindfold. "Let's go people. Hiro, get over here!"

"Luz, no groping. It's bad enough that I'm going to let you play." Mira motioned for him to turn around and she tied the blindfold tightly. "Hiro, your turn." He was a little reluctant at first but figured there couldn't be any harm in this silly game. The wizard finished tying blindfolds on all the participants and stepped away. "Now then, none of you are allowed to talk because it would give you away. We'll lead you under the mistletoe and then let you loose."

The first two people were led out to the center of the room, they kissed and there were some giggles and mumbling throughout the room. The moment the girl took off her blindfold, she went wide-eyed and then disgusted. "UGH!" She whined and stalked off leaving the priest with disheartened look on his face. "What was her problem?" Hiro wondered aloud. Though he couldn't see, he could put two and two together from what he heard. Two others went and things seemed to go better for them.

Luzien then felt a hand grab his arm and pull him. He happily let himself be led under the mistletoe where he waited for the okay. He heard the shuffling of feet over the floor stop in front of him. "You might have to look up because you got a tall one." He heard Mira say the other. "Enjoy." She added and gave Luz a little push as she walked by. Luzien stepped forward and expertly found his target. His hands cupped the face of the girl with a grin spreading across his lips.

Without further waiting, the high priest leaned down and captured her lips. They heard more giggles and excited murmurs so it must have been quite a show. Oh, I'll give them a show, Luz thought.

He slid an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. She seemed a little unsure of something. "Okay Luz, enough is enough. We don't need to see more, there are young eyes in the room." Mira laughed. Luzien reached behind his head and untied the blindfold, to see just whom it was he had kissed. He had thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps one of the twins? Maybe Mariah?

No, neither of those stood before him. In fact, no girl stood before him. Only a horrified Hiroki stood there, frozen in place. His hands still gripped the blindfold as it hung around his neck. Luzien had no words to explain how he felt at the moment. His cocky grin simply fell from his face and he could only stare. He kissed a guy. He didn't know he was kissing a guy but he did. They were both very sober now.

"So, how was it?" Mira asked slyly. She and a few other girls had planned this to get back at the perverted high priest for his groping and peeping. Hiroki, unfortunately, had to share in the punishment even though he did nothing but it could be worse. He would be fine! "You two looked like you enjoyed it."

Hiroki and Luzien looked at each other for a moment and then turned away instantly, both crossing their arms and turning bright red.

"We're ruined, Luz. Happy holidays." They would never, _ever_ live this down and they would never go with a hundred feet of mistletoe, alcohol or girls with revenge on their minds.

"Hiro…I dun feel so good…"

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A/N: You're up, Minane! 


	2. Day Two Tree Killing Weed

#2 of 25 - 24 More Days till Christmas!

AN: Hiroki belongs to Halcyon Clouds also known as Sal.

**Tree Killing Weed**

by Miname

"So you're leaving.."

I sighed at the comment that was more of a reminder of crime than a muse, in exasperation with a slight tinge of remorse.

"Yes! How many times do I have to tell you?" I cried out miserably, "Are you just trying to remind me – that – that….whatever." I slumped forward and my stride decreased in depression.

A girl with a cute smile that didn't match my mood by an inch popped up in front of me. I could tell another reminder was going to come from a single look at the human book.

With a cheeky grin, my friend piped up like a bird, "Yes! I'm trying to remind you that you will be leaving Prontera on my birthday, not to mention on Christmas, in which you are going to Payon where they don't celebrate Christmas and have no snow, and that we had promised when we were little that we would be friends fore-"

"Shut up!" I yelled angrily as my depression level increased. I hit this so-called friend, Hanalei, on the head. I heard a strange yet expected hollow sound resound back which painted a cruel grin on my face.

"Are you so hollow that you can't understand that your evil efforts to make me stay are going to cause me to fall under depression and starve to death!"

Lei popped away like a groundhog on a cloudy day before popping back beside me. I groaned – trying to follow Lei was like trying to trace lightening before it disappeared, which was obviously, impossible.

Lei rolled her eyes in mock thought, a teasing smile forming on her lips, "Maybe….And………"

Another groan escaped my mouth. Her next action was so obvious and incredibly annoying that I could almost hate her to the moon and back as people put it, if she wasn't such an annoyingly fun person, not to mention my longest lasting friend.

"Don't say anything," I threatened under my breath. Immediately, I regretted my words.

Unperturbed, or, more accurately, encouraged, Lei's grin spread across her face forming a long line rather than lips.

"Are you going to confess?"

I felt a slight blush spread on my face which I tried to squeeze away using mind power.

"No, and I don't know what you're talking about," I said out loud. I felt like smacking myself afterwards – I sounded like a dope and one hundred percent unconvincing.

Lei sprinted in ahead of me and then walked backwards to join me. This time, her face was dead serious. I felt like I was being choked by it.

"Seriously, are you really going to leave without telling him? I mean, I know he's probably gay and likes some other girl who probably likes him back so that they have a happy couple, but if you don't go and get rejected it will haunt you for the rest of your life!"

I felt peer pressure get tossed on my shoulder and suddenly, walking seemed so much more complicated then I thought. I had a kind of obsession over this high priest who everybody said was handsome but probably gay and this other girl liked him and I could tell he liked her back though it wasn't too obvious.

"Hopeless. In plus, I'm not the possessive type of person. I don't steal things from other people if I really see the bright future," I muttered miserably.

Skipping in front of me, with the 'I really mean it look' plastered all over her face, Lei stared at me, slightly worried.

"You know, you're the type of person that writes suicide notes on a daily basis only to be stopped when you remember you have to do something first," remarked Lei sympathetically, "But you should really try. You might get a mistle toe!"

I laughed out dryly. Suicide notes on a daily basis…though I didn't do that, it really fitted my personality so much I wondered incredulously why I hadn't strapped myself to a rock, killed everyone I know and jumped off a cliff leaving only a love note before cringing – it sounded kind of stupid.

"What a nice thought. Did you know that mistle toe is a tree killing parasitic vine weed?" I answered, a grin on my face, "Not to mention one of the least wanted plant if it's is not dead and dried into an ornament?"

I wasn't sure if Lei was listening since she was looking to her right, her hazel eyes concentrating on something not to far away before relaxing and twinkling in excitement. Lei turned around, fully energized, her long brown hair whipping around her.

"No time for thought!" she cried out, "Somebody's coming!" – and then she sprinted off.

Immediately, in panic, I turned to my right and saw a very familiar figure approaching closely. Looking the other way, I managed to push down a slight blush and gain control.

"Hello, Keuresia."

I turned to see a high priest with black and strangely cute black eyes though nobody else thought so.

Tightening my insides into a puppet under my control, I kept in my panic and went into my cool and calm mode. I should have acted normally, but I couldn't come out of my awake coma state.

"Oh, hi Hiroki."

Waving innocently and oblivious to the pressure I put myself into, he passed me, shoulder to shoulder. When he brushed past me, I could feel his presence overpower me and I almost cried. My shoulders slumped but I didn't remove my stone face or say a thing since once you become the puppet, only the puppeteer could set you free – my control was long gone now.

Finally, I realized that I would be leaving in just an hour or so. I remembered what Lei said – haunt me for the rest of my life. She was right. The master manipulator let go of my puppet strings and I felt the real me gain control.

I turned around, almost desperately with my hair whipping to the side, but Hiro was gone. I felt crushed, not because Hiro didn't like me – I'd already accepted that. But right now, I was being presented with unbearable pressure. Somehow, I felt like a squished bug, the fact that I couldn't speak to him made me feel weak, that I couldn't live anymore since I'd be crushed anyways by the bigger, more powerful.

When a hot tear slid down my cheek, I wasn't sure if I was me anymore. The last I remembered, the real me took no nonsense, was the strongest person in the entire sniper population, and the one of the most respected people in the world being the great respected and willful heir of Juno who everyone knew by one look would bring the world to it's second true golden age.

Suddenly, I felt struck flat with realization – then If that was so, why didn't I just tell Hiro with a straight face my feelings and then dump him out like _me_?

Turning on my heels, wiping away tears, I ran after the place I had last place I remembered Hiro would probably be. To my relief, he was sitting against a tree relaxing and staring at the sky. My heart skipped a beat when I saw his hair fall softly against his cheek, but I restrained any unwanted reactions.

I tapped him on the shoulder. His head lifted up and I saw the piece of hair fall aside lazily.

"Keuresia?" he asked.

I smiled, keeping my calm. I put my hand on Hiro's shoulder.

"Hey. I'm leaving in one hour for Payon…..I just wanted you to know I love you."

I saw Hiro's mouth drop open in shock, all signs of sleepiness gone. I could easily tell what he was going to say from developed skill but I cut him off.

"But I know you like Yuresia so I won't bother you - I'm okay."

Not waiting for any response, I turned tail and walked away.

After the first few steps, I burst out crying for no reason at all. I felt a strange loss that wasn't mine. I sobbed and wiped tears – not real tears though, just a human impulse on losing something.

"You got jilted?"

I looked through a blur of tears and smiled as sincerely as I could to Lei who probably had been stretching her neck to death to see what had happened.

"Yeah – kinda."

Lei popped up in front of me, her over-sized swordswoman dress swinging side to side. Leaning forward to study me carefully, she commented, "You're crying."

"Hmm?"

I lifted a hand to wipe away remaining tears. I shrugged my shoulders, in wonder.

"Actually, I kind of jilted myself." I muttered sheepishly.

I saw Lei's mouth open in protest. I cut her off before she spoke.

"Anyways, Christmas was never a lucky time. Last year, the snow melted before I could make a snow fort and this year, I'm moving," I added, hopeful for Lei to stop pestering me.

My best friend shut her mouth in thought.

"At least you're not going to be with a gay person," she suddenly piped up, reenergized, eyes wide open in expectancy.

My hand came down to bonk Lei on the head. My life felt strangely better after hearing the empty bucket sound one more time.

"Hiro is not gay," I decided out loud, "I don't fall for gay people…." For a moment, my mind dwelled on the thought, feeling as if it missed something,

I felt a click in my mind and snapped my fingers, my eyes opened in shock.

"Or maybe since I don't love gay people so that's why me and Hiro aren't together!" I suddenly remarked, spirits raised at such a radical thought. "Hiro is gay!"

My steps quickened as strange thoughts swirled into my mind. I didn't quite notice what Lei was doing behind me since my mind was occupied and only her presence was there. Three minutes later, I almost didn't realize it was snowing.

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AN: Moussi is going up the stage:D


	3. Day Three Coming Home

A/N: Well, here it is :D.

--

**Coming Home**

By Anonymoussi

Adrian was six years late in coming home. This was peculiar, as he wasn't expected in town for another month.

Alberta was, essentially, the same town he remembered. Wide streets, neat rows of houses. The inn, with its heavy clientele of gunshot couples and drunkards. Traveling merchants with their carts sitting by the street in the shade, jumping up at the first mention of selling something.

The same feeling of idle listlessness that had driven him to leave.

Adrian sighed heavily and tried not to think about it. Unlike another industrial city he knew of, at least Alberta had fresh air.

"Excuse me, sir."

Adrian turned. Standing before him was a young boy with oddly familiar unruly hair. The boy grinned.

"Need directions anywhere?"

"I'm, uh, ok for now." Adrian nodded sheepishly. The boy squinted at him.

A moment later, he drew back. His face was one of disbelief.

"_Adrian_?"

Adrian grinned weakly. The boy's mouth fell open.

"It _is_ you!" the boy crowed incredulously. Then he laughed. "It's Elk, remember me?"

Adrian had a fleeing vision of a tiny toddler with messy light hair. "Yeah," he chuckled.

Elk beamed, looking fit to burst. "Gee, it's been six years already. You got a lot taller, Adrian!"

Before Adrian could answer, Elk rushed ahead. "Oh! Got somewhere to stay?"

"Well, I was thinking I'd go rent a room at the inn…." He stopped at Elk's expression.

"You can't," Elk said plaintively. "Or if Grandma finds out, she'll dismember me."

Adrian decided not to question where Elk had learned such a violent phrase, and then recalled who Grandma exactly was. He shuddered.

"Well…"

Elk gazed imploringly at him. "Please? I promise Grandpa won't be too embarrassing."

Adrian opened his mouth and fell short. He'd forgotten.

"..don't go back," Elk was saying. "I mean, then Grandma will push me off a cliff if she finds out we scared you away."

It was enough to break Adrian from his frozen state. He stared, and laughed hard. Elk grinned, first uncertainly, then widely at having said something Adrian apparently found amusing.

"Alright," Adrian found himself answering, and a small part of him that was still apprehensive of the idea disappeared quickly to the back of his mind.

"Can you take me to see them?"

--

Grandpa was although still quite hale, was slightly ill. He sat in an armchair in the family room and watched them happily.

Grandma, on the other hand, was everything Adrian had expected.

"…and you know, I was just about to strike you over the head with this frying pan when I realized who you were!" Grandma sighed in apparent bliss while Grandpa chuckled quietly to himself. She reached out to ruffle Adrian's hair.

"Ah, that black hair. Your mother and I used to talk about how you were the only boy who could keep his hair long because it was so neat. Well, everyone wears it long now," she said, and glared at Elk, who grinned sheepishly.

"How could I not recognize you with those lovely blue eyes. Like sky blue, the minute I saw them, I figured it out straightaway!" Grandma chirped brightly. "And those high cheekbones. Any girl would have killed to have your face."

"That might not be the best thing to say, Greta," Grandpa scolded gently from his corner of the room.

"Nonsense," Grandma scoffed, turning back to Adrian. "Your mother and I always agreed that your good looks were wasted on you being a boy."

She turned and glared at Elk, who flinched, wide-eyed. "Boys always cause trouble! Adrian here, running off at thirteen and not leaving a single thing behind." She gave a stern look at Elk, as if challenging him to attempt the same. Elk winced and grinned apologetically at Adrian.

"Who ran away and came back?" A female voice filtered through the hallway, and a woman, perhaps in her mid-twenties, stepped into the threshold and halted abruptly.

She stared. Adrian stared back nervously.

"Adrian Danes, come here and let me throw you out the window!" The woman marched towards Adrian, and he backed up instinctively several steps, moving away from Grandma.

"Uh…Sara," he said nervously. She smacked him smartly upside the head.

"Don't you Sara me!" she admonished, stepping hard on his foot. He cringed. "Who told you that you could run away and become a Whitesmith-" she said the last word with unnecessary emphasis, "-and not say a single word?!"

"Well-I-"

"No excuses! What's that badge on your vest? King Tristan, why are you working for that creep?!"

"Sara," someone called. "Please keep the noise level down?"

"Yeah, we're kind of…"

Sara and Adrian turned. Standing by the door where Sara had just vacated was a boy who looked about seventeen, with a sharp face and short hair. Opposite him, on the other side of the room, was another man who looked so distinctly like the other that the two could have passed as each other.

They both gaped incredulously.

"Adrian!" they yelled simultaneously, and Adrian would have thrown himself out the window, had Sara not already attempted to.

Linc and Arek converged on him.

"This-"

"-was for dashing off-"

"-and not taking us-"

"-with you! And this-"

"-was for all the-"

"-birthday punches you missed!" they finished together, pummeling any bit of him they could get at with overflowing gusto. A deep laugh came from where Arek had been, and a man of about forty stepped into the room, stroking his dark beard.

"You had it coming, Adrian," he said. "My sons having been waiting six years for this opportunity."

"Thanks, that makes for a very warm welcome," Adrian managed over the pain of his shoulders being pounded mercilessly and Linc and Alek's gleeful exclamations. They stopped hitting him and laughed wildly.

"But you don't seem to mind," Vareth said sagely, settling into a chair next to Grandpa. Adrian grinned, not answering.

"Whew, and just in time for the holiday!" Grandma said cheerfully, and bustled into the adjoining kitchen, as though Adrian had not just had his head nearly knocked off. "Adrian, dear, you'll get to taste some of my wonderful pie!"

Adrian winced, just as another voice floated in.

"Did someone say _Adrian_?"

They turned towards the front door, which had opened halfway. Adrian froze.

In the doorway stood a young woman, no older than twenty, wrapped in a heavy fur-trimmed cloak. She had very sharp green eyes, and a delicately boned face framed by short, curly brown hair.

Adrian stared. She stared back at him with the look of one who had just had a door slammed in their face.

The sound of Grandpa snoring gently interrupted the thick silence.

The young woman glared.

"YOU."

--

"I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!"

Everyone winced. Adrian sunk deeper into his chair.

"Ok, so you decide to run away and disappear for six years! _Six freaking years._" Misa swallowed, pacing frantically. "And _then_, after everyone thinks you've gone and kicked the bucket, you decide that you'll just mosey on down here and that's it's perfectly ok!"

Misa whirled around and slammed two palms on the table. There was a collective scraping of chairs to move farther away.

"But what _really_ takes the cake," she said viciously, glaring holes through Adrian, "is that you didn't tell anyone! Not a single soul, not even a peep. And yeah, that's perfectly fine, huh?!"

Linc and Alek stood hastily. "Yeah, we'll just be going now…"

"Me too," Sarah said quickly, turning towards the door where Vareth stood. She hurried out after Linc with the grandparents on her heels.

Misa eyed the procession with a quizzical look. Adrian watched her apprehensively.

Once the door slammed shut behind them, Misa sighed deeply and stood straight.

"Well, that's the last of them," she said wearily. Adrian raised both eyebrows.

"I really didn't expect to be back so soon," he said by way of explanation. Misa turned away from him and leaned on the sill of the large window.

"Everyone thought you were long dead," she said impassively. She was silhouetted against the bright afternoon sun and looked pale-haired and ethereal.

"I figured as much."

There was an awkward pause.

"I hope Grandmother didn't bring anything uncomfortable up," she said. "You know how she can be."

"It's alright."

Another silence.

"You aren't...really furious or anything, are you."

Misa sighed.

"I was." She paused and considered it. "I still am."

Adrian swallowed hard.

"…do you hate me?"

Misa exhaled quietly, then rubbed the condensation off the window, taking her time.

"No…but I envy you."

He blinked and looked up sharply. She did not turn around.

--

"I've been trapped here nineteen years." Misa held her arms out in the sunlight. The alley she had chosen to walk was spacious but empty, and filled with chilly air and dying winter light.

She dropped her arms and sighed.

"I'm sorry. I knew you couldn't stay here."

Adrian didn't answer. She accepted his silence with a nod.

"My…grandfather is dying."

He glanced at her, alarmed. Her sigh shook the still air.

"I know. He looks fine. But he's truly ill. And…we can't do anything to stop it."

She bit her lip. Their footsteps echoed slowly up the street.

"He became ill shortly after you left. I went to Aldebaran to study alchemy because I thought maybe I could find a cure."

Silence. A crow called overhead.

"Sometimes I just wish you could have taken me with you. But I know I would have weighed you down," she said throatily. "You might have thought you didn't have anyone, but really we were all here for you. And then after you left, I was the one alone."

Misa had stopped walking. Adrian turned to her and was shocked to see her face averted, one hand pressed to her mouth, fingers covering her eyes.

The full meaning of what she had said hit him in the face.

--

"Where have you been?" Grandma brandished a silver pot at them while stirring another on the stove.

"Oh." Misa rolled her eyes. "Catching up."

Adrian took a seat at the table and was joined by Misa, who sighed heavily. The air was warm and thick with the smell of sugar and spices.

"Goodness, I never know where in the world you two are off to or what you're doing. Just like when you were children, never well-behaved."

Adrian caught Misa's eye and she turned away quickly, stifling laughter. She buried her head in her sleeve as Grandma came to the table, setting a large pie between them and giving Misa a suspicious look. She scurried back to the stove, and Misa looked up again.

"Pumpkin?" she mused, wrinkling her nose.

"I thought you liked pumpkin pie," Grandma said. "Always ate at Christmas dinner."

"Well, I do," Misa shrugged, "but I remember someone else who doesn't."

She gave Adrian a sly look. He groaned. "Don't listen to her, Grandma."

"Ah, but she's right. You never did like my pie." Grandma pointed a spoon threateningly at him. "But try it nonetheless. You might actually have a taste for it this time around."

While Misa cut the pie, Adrian's eyes wandered over the kitchen. The table was the same, scratch marks where he and Misa had been caught playing with her father's daggers, ten years ago. Cabinets with the brass paint rubbed off the handles. The window still looked out into the garden, with the same dying wisteria and peach trees. The branches were bare and skeletal in the cold, as he remembered.

"Here," a voice broke through his train of thought. He looked up to see Misa standing over the table with a plate in one hand and a fork in the other, wearing an exasperated expression.

"I forgot how absent-minded you can be," she said, putting the plate down in front of him.

"You make me sound like I forget to put my shoes on when I walk out the door," Adrian said, snorting derisively.

"I actually did that once," Misa mused, sitting down with her own slice of pie. "Remember? When we went butterfly catching, but I left my shoes inside on purpose."

Adrian smirked. "And burned your feet."

"It was an accident!" Misa pouted. "Honest to goodness, I didn't mean to. Just because I had to sweep the store that day didn't mean I…"

She clapped a hand over her mouth. Adrian laughed at her slip and picked up his fork.

"So, Adrian," Grandma said over her shoulder. "Are you thinking of staying here for the holidays?"

Adrian paused with the fork in his mouth. He hadn't thought about staying.

Misa glanced at him, then looked away. Her face was carefully blank. He thought back to earlier.

"If it isn't too much trouble," he said finally after swallowing.

Grandma turned around and slapped his head.

"Nonsense," she scolded, as Adrian rubbed the ache and Misa laughed at his misfortune. "Since when have you ever been any trouble?"

The irony was amazing, Adrian thought.

"Then I'll stay," he said aloud, and the words sounded strangely comfortable on his tongue. He glanced back at Misa, who wore the tiniest of relieved smiles on her face.

"Well," Grandma said, turning around, and she was smiling widely. "What do you think of the pie?"

Adrian looked down and realized that his plate was empty, the fork resting beside it.

"It's the best thing I've had in a while," he said without thinking, and paused. "The best thing in six years, actually," he amended.

Grandma laughed. Adrian looked to Misa. She beamed across the table at him, and he found himself smiling back.

--

Part II will be coming next week. Hopeless, it's you on the spot :3...


	4. Day Four It Looks Alot Like Christmas

**A/N:** My own characters are too stoic, so here we go! Luzien belongs to Tellie-chan, and Hiroki to Sal! xD -hearts- Gogo Luz/Hiro action, baby! -gets plowed over-

**It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas**

**By:** respectfully yours, Hopelessmine

_**'He knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!'**_

_**-Santa Claus is Coming to Town**_

"Man, this is boring." Luzien stared glumly out the Prontera church window, watching the seemingly endless gray clouds shift lazily across the sky.

"Then would you mind helping me, please?" his partner-in-crime, Hiroki, retorted sarcastically as he hauled two sloshing buckets of water across the dusty church floor.

"Nope. Thanks for the offer, though." Turning away from the window, the taller priest yawned as he watched his friend struggle with the rebellious water buckets. "Mm... you've got to put more muscle into your work. Manpower, Hiro, it's all about _manpower."_

"Whatever," Hiroki snapped, feeling very peevish. Maybe it was the elders getting to him. Or just the dust accumulating inside the church. Whatever it was, it left him with two heavy buckets and a very short fuse. "I don't see _you_ using any manpower right now."

"Ah-ah-ah," Quirking an eyebrow, Luzien walked up to the other high priest and effortlessly picked up the two buckets of water, draping one over each shoulder. Looking back, he tsk'ed at his friend. "Don't let PMS'ing get to you, Hiro, my friend. Staying in-tact is what makes guys so lovable. Like me."

"Oh, sure," Hiro sat down on the edge of a pew, eyeing his friend with a healthy amount of skepticism. "And I'm guessing that's why the Kafra girls love you so much."

"They do love me," Luzien argued defensively. "It's just a unique kind of love only a sensitive person like me can understan— SNOW!"

"Huh? Wait, what—LUZ!" Hiroki jumped up in horror as Luzien let the two buckets of water drop to the ground, water splashing everywhere. "Heyy_yyy!_ Now look what you've done! You can't just do... that..." He trailed off as a blur of robes sped past him, and out the heavy church doors. "Hey... HEY! Luz! Oh, for the love of..."

Grudgingly, Hiro jogged up the isles of pews and out the door after his fellow high priest. Looking both ways, Hiroki resisted the urge to scratch his head in confusion. Now where did that conniving perverted High Priest go—

"HIROOOOOOO!"

Well, that was one question answered. Rolling his eyes, Hiroki dashed off towards the sound of Luzien's voice.

"Luz? Luzien, where are— W-what are you _doing?"_ Hiroki stopped dead in his tracks as his vision met a very giddy High Priest doing a— could it be classified as an unnerving kind of jig?— rather embarrassing prance in the middle of the church courtyard, arms wide open, extended towards the sky as white flakes floated down.

"Hey, Hiro! Looklook, it's _snowww!!" _Luzien stretched out 'snow' as if he were explaining to a clueless child about Santa Claus and how marvelous he was.

"Yes, Luzien, I see," The shorter High Priest remarked dryly, getting ready to bolt into hiding if anyone happened to pass by this very weird scene. "Amazing."

"Isn't it?" Luzien breathed, a silly grin stretching his face, as he tilted his head back further– if possible– and started twirling around in circles.

"Yeah." Hardly paying any attention to his friend's strange antics, Hiroki could only think about the mess they had made in the Prontera church, and how the elders would find out if they didn't return soon, and make them do something more horrible... like... teaching about... Shuddering, Hiroki shook off the terrifying idea. Never again, would he go through that again. Not if he could help it. "Uh... okay, Luz. We all know that snow's something that no one's ever seen before, but—"

"— with me, Hiro!"

"— we should really get back to the church before... what?"

"I said!" Luzien had stopped twirling and jigging, and was now facing Hiroki with a serious expression on his face. "I said, that you should come dance with me!"

"Yes, I agree, let's go bac— _what did you say?"_

"Come dance with me!" Luzien's face broke out into a wide happy grin. "C'mon, it's so fun!"

"N-no, thanks," Hiroki twitched, remembering the other incidents when he had let Luzien have his way. "You can dance with yourself. I'm going back to the church, and—"

"— awww, c'moonnnn, Hiroooo!" Luz whined, pouting. Hiro unconsciously took a step backwards. "It'll only be a sec— promise! Besides, no one is watching!"

"Er..." Seeing no way out of this argument, especially when Luzien had his whining face on, Hiroki sighed and admitted defeat. "Fine... fine, alright. But only for a second."

"'Kay!" Grabbing Hiroki's arm, Luzien pulled him over to where he was and nodded intently at his friend. "Okay, young apprentice of mine, just imitate what I do, and soon you'll get the hang of it!"

Sweatdropping, Hiroki slowly, stiffly, raised an arm as Luzien did, and lifted a leg. He wished the ground could just suddenly swallow him up.

"That's it!" Luzien encouraged, beaming in approval. "Then... you just... let... _loose!"_

Hiroki made an odd strangled sound as he jumped backwards, barely avoiding getting hit by Luzien as he suddenly started doing an explicit version of the nutcracker suite in the snow.

Closing and reopening his eyes very slowly, Hiroki sighed again. Well, he might as well try it. There was no way Luzien was going to let him off until he at least tried it. Screwing his eyes tightly, as not to give himself a clear view at whatever he was doing, Hiro started slowly to twirl in the snow. Stiff, jerky movements.

Oh, shaddup, Hiroki reprimanded himself. At least you're doing it.

Oh, crap.

Hit with the sudden realization and mental image of what he was actually doing, Hiroki stopped dead in the middle of a particularly gawky turn. _What was he doing?_

Resisting the urge to go over to the stone wall of the church and bang his head repeatedly on it, Hiroki slowly released a quivering, disbelieving breath, and opened his eyes. He was graced with the sight of Luzien still dancing. Hiroki slapped his forehead.

"Okay, c'mon Luz." Interrupting the larger priest, the smaller one dragged him away from the church courtyard, where he was sure he would never look at the same way again. "I've think we've done enough damage here."

"Augh, pssh, fine. Spoilsport." Luzien groaned, watching as his breath evaporated in the chilly air. "But one of these days, you'll see how dancing with me in the snow will change your look at life."

"It'll change my look of life, alright." Hiroki grumbled under his breath, still in shock of what Luzien had brainwashed him to do.

"—ROKI! LUZIEN!"

Hiroki and Luzien stopped dead in their tracks. They could have recognized those voices anywhere.

Cursing softly, Hiroki looked wildly for a place to hide.

"Bad boy," Luzien said, voice cracking slightly as he heard the voice coming closer. "Priests aren't suppose to curse—"

"Shut _up," _Hiroki hissed, clamping a mouth over the other priest's mouth. "Do you _want_ them to know where we are?"

"Apparently, he did," a rather dry, dead-panned voice said next to them.

It was now Luzien's turn to let out a string of profanity, as both victims jumped violently and looked over to their right.

There, in all his glory, stood the head elder priest, looking highly unamused as he stared at both High Priests, one with his hand placed on the other's face. A row of other priests stood behind him, sniggering at the two priest's misfortune.

"What's going on here?"

"Well," Luzien began. Hiroki groaned. "We were cleaning up the church, and all of a sudden—"

"That was a rhetorical question," The head priest snapped, looking both of them up and down in a single glance. "Get inside. Now."

Luzien started to speak, but stopped short when Hiroki kicked him hard in the shins. "Ow," he mourned resentfully, as he and the rest of the priests walked slowly back to the church's main doors.

"Er... Head Priest," Hiroki began, once their were inside the church. "I—"

Raising a hand to stop him, the head priest turned around. A rather malicious glint was in his eyes. "You two," he started, pointing to both High Priests, "are going to have a lot of work to do."

Hiroki desperately prayed for something drastic to suddenly happen.

* * *

"Hello, boys."Angela looked up rather wryly, as Luzien and Hiroki entered the house.

"I'm tired," Luzien whined, plopping himself down in an armchair next to the fire.

"No kidding." Hiroki imitated his friend, running a hand through his unruly black hair.

"Mm... I wonder why." Angela blinked calmly, and looked back down at her work again. "Dancing in the snow again, perhaps?"

Hiroki shot up from his chair, looking intensely alarmed at this idea. "How did you— I mean, what gave you that idea?"

"You, of all people, should know the answer to that." Yuresia walked into the room, holding up a pile of papers. Walking over to Angela's desk, she carefully set them down next to the documents Angela was working on.

"Thanks, darling." Angela nodded in appreciation, not looking up.

"Anytime." Walking out of the room, Yuresia appeared again moments later, carrying a tray of hot cocoa. Gracefully, she gave each member in the room a cup.

Hiroki took his mug wordlessly, looking dumbly at the steam rising from his drink. "What do you mean—"

"— Marshmallow?"

"— What— oh, yes, please— No! I mean, what do you mean by—"

"— Yes, or no, Hiroki?"

"— that— I said yes, Yure— Argh!" Hiro stared sadly as white puffy marshmallows plopped into his cocoa. "Yure, what did you mean by that?"

"Mean by what?" Yure bustled along, adding a few marshmallows into each cup.

"By us knowing what Angela was saying."

"Oh?" Yure turned around and looked at him for a second, eyebrow raised. Then she nodded over at the coffee table. "You haven't read the newspaper, yet?"

Cold fear rising in his throat, Hiroki dropped his cup down onto a stool near him, and almost sprinted to the coffee table.

Picking up the newspaper laying on it, he stared at the front page. _King Is Thinking About Alliance with Lands Unknown_, it read. Hiroki blinked. There was nothing unusual about—

"Seventh page," Yuresia called over to him.

Fumbling, Hiroki scrambled to the seventh page, wishing his oddly numb fingers to work faster.

When he reached it, the High Priest looked down— and froze.

"What is it?" Luzien had come up behind him, curiosity getting the better of him.

Glancing down as well, he read the top title. _Peco Race: Bids Making Citizens Angry._ ... Huh?

"Look... down..." Hiroki managed to say frozen lips.

Shrugging, Luzien followed his friend's orders and nearly fainted.

"Oh Dear God... you must be kidding me," he choked out.

There, in a rather forbiddingly large font, read: _Two Priests Have Been Added To The Gay Community of Midgard. Congratulations To Their Love For Each Other!_

Underneath, showed two pictures. One was of them dancing in the snow, and the other was with Hiroki planting his mouth over Luzien's mouth, expressions photoshopped so they looked as if they were about to kiss each other senseless. Both pictures were accompanied by very lengthy and seemingly detailed paragraphs.

"I'm going to die now, thank you." Hiroki had turned a sickly shade of white. Luzien had already slumped to the floor, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.

Behind them, a Paladin had looked up from her work, and was sipping her cocoa slowly. Beside her, a certain sage was doing the same. They had their attentions captured on their love interests.

Cracking up silently, both women clinked cups and returned back to whatever they were doing again.

This was turning out to be a very happy holiday.

* * *

Fin**

* * *

A/N: Ahh, so let's just pretend Photoshop exists. x3 Anyway, Luz seems a wee too happy. Gogo, sugar? Must, make this short, so yayy, Sal! You're up! -heartheartlove-**


	5. Day Five Merry Christmas You Jerk

A teensy bit of fluff here. Anonymoussi and I started a little rp a couple weeks ago and I liked the characters so I ran with it!

* * *

**Merry Christmas You Jerk**

By Tela

Snow had yet to fall in Alde Baran but it was still cold as hell to Sini. The violet haired alchemist had donned a brown muffler and leggings and a pair of fuzzy white earmuffs to keep her warm while she was outside selling her usual potions along with some other items for the holiday. She sat on the steps outside of the clock tower, daydreaming about snow. "Hey Sini." She heard a familiar voice. She looked up to see Raj, her annoying whitesmith friend approaching her.

"Hey. What do you want?"

The blond grinned and sat next to her. "I just thought I'd say hi…and also that I need your help later." Sini frowned and adjusted her small glasses. Nothing good ever came from hanging around him. She was either thrown into the fountain in Prontera or her cart was set on fire, or some other horrible thing. Suddenly, she reached over and punched him in the arm. "What the hell was that for?" he asked, bewildered.

"It's a warning," she replied with a smirk.

"Strange girl." She punched him again at his comment. "Sini!"

"Raj!" she exclaimed mockingly.

'I'm leaving then. Your abuse is getting to me," he sighed as he stood up, "Meet me in Lutie about four pm, okay? At the big Christmas tree." She shrugged and watched him wave and walk away. What could he possibly need help with? He probably just wanted to rummage through her cart for something like always.

As the afternoon passed, it was getting close to about three so she packed up her cart and began her leisurely walk to the Christmas town of Lutie. One thing about Sini was that she was always on time or early to be somewhere. She had never _ever_ been late without a damned good reason. She was actually looking forward to seeing the snow and the adorable blue marin's bouncing around.

She made her way through the busy city, stopping twice to sell something. At last, she reached the entrance. She entered the snow field outside of Lutie and was welcomed with a gust of colder air and sparkling white snow.

"Been a long time since I've built a snowman," She mused quietly to herself. It must have been at least four years since the last time. She had been sixteen at the time and still a plain old merchant back then.

_It was a typical winter day in the port city of Alberta and she had taken a break from her sales to have a little fun. When she had finally rolled the large snowballs and piled them on one another, she rummaged around for something to use for the face. A handful of rocks surfaced soon after and her snowman was complete…until an idiot blacksmith barreled into it and sent snow flying in all directions._

_She twitched and watched the blond blacksmith get up with a cheesy grin. He would pay for destroying her hard work. "What the hell?!" she growled, throwing a rock at his head. "You ruined my snowman you moron!"_

"_Ouch! Chill out, it was an accident," he laughed as he dusted the snow from himself. He actually looked about her age, she noticed. She crossed her arms angrily and glared at him. "Ugh, look, I'll help you build another one."_

"…_fine," she replied, grudgingly rolling a new snowball. "I'm Sini. Who're you, oh wrecker of defensless snowmen?"_

"_Raj is the name." He winked. She merely rolled her eyes and positioned her new base for the snowman. She had no idea what she was getting into by befriending _him.

"Stupid Raj." The alchemist muttered as she placed a few rocks for the eyes and mouth. She stood back, tapping a finger on her chin, wondering what else to add to the snowman. "Aha!" She turned to her cart, pulled out a carrot, and pushed it into place to make a nose. She admired her handiwork with satisfaction. "Perfect."

After a few moments, she looked down at her watch and figured she should get going if she was to meet Raj on time. She still had fifteen minutes though so she wasn't worried. If anything, he would be late.

She made her way into the Christmas town, Lutie, and crossed the bridge with a smile. She loved holidays. She sang jovially as she walked along and at last reached the large Christmas tree in the middle of town. The mastersmithsmith was nowhere to be seen she noted with annoyance.

She continued to sing various Christmas songs until she heard a voice. "You sing horribly," he laughed. She turned to see Raj standing behind her with his usual grin. Who was he to tell her that she couldn't sing? If anything, he was far worse. It was quite comparable to a dying chicken crossed with a dying cow and no, she wasn't exaggerating.

"Shut up."

"Glad you came, Sini."

"What'd you need help with anyway?" she asked. A smirk crossed his face and instantly, she knew she had been had. "Damnit!"

"I didn't actually need help with anything. I wasn't sure you'd come otherwise." He reached into his coat pocket, pulled out a small, dark blue box with a gold ribbon, and held it out to her. "For you."

She arched a dubious brow. "What's this?"

"A present."

She was a little taken aback. She certainly hadn't expected a gift. Normally his gifts were jokes or totally useless but this one seemed different. In fact, he seemed different today. Sini couldn't decided whether to take the little box from his hand or not. Cautiously she reached out, took the box from his hand, and pulled the gold ribbon loose. He watched her with a smile and waited for her to open her gift. After a little hesitation, she pulled the lid away and saw a glint of silver.

"Do you normally take this long to open presents?" he chuckled. She reached in and pulled out a necklace with thin silver chain and a bright blue gem. Her eyes widened as she inspected it. It was actually very pretty, she thought.

"I figured since Sini means blue, a sapphire would suit you. I even made it myself! Imagine that." She wasn't completely sure what to say. This was unusual, at least in her eyes.

"Um…I hope that speechless means something good. Let me help you put it on." He grasped her shoulders and turned her around and moved her violet hair to the side so it was out of the way, refraining from running his fingers over her smooth skin.

Taking the necklace from her, he put it around her neck and latched the clasp. She stood there, pondering the meaning of this little gift since her voice had, for once in her life, escaped her. "Merry Christmas, Sini."

Adding yet another surprise to the day, Raj put his arms around her shoulders and planted a kiss on her cheek. _This is kinda nice_, she thought. So maybe she did like him, just a little, but he didn't need to know.

Raj, on the other hand, was just waiting for her to reach out and hit him. She didn't though, she just remained still. For the moment...

Finally, the alchemist snapped back into reality and elbowed him in the gut. He looked a little crestfallen at her actions and then she felt guilty. She couldn't help it though, it's just the way she was. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best course of actions in some situations. "Sorry…habit. It's like an involuntary reflex."

"It's okay." She was a tough one crack. One of these days, his luck might change with her.

"Thanks Raj, I really do like it…Merry Christmas you jerk." She grinned and wrapped him in a hug.

* * *

**A/N**: I'm getting attached to these two –lovelove-

Go go Sal! You're next!


	6. Day Six Commotion in Comodo 1

**Commotion in Comodo Part 1**

A Crossover Oneshot Of Crack That Has Nothing To Do With Anything

By Halcyon Clouds

"I don't wanna spend Christmas in frickin' Lutie! Everyone and their grandma spends Christmas in Lutie! It's just like every other year, ya know. I swear I'd beat the living daylights out of that clown if I ever see him again. And woman don't dress scantily in cold weather! There is nothing to see, nothing!"

"…uh huh."

"Hiro! Years go by in the blink of an eye and before ya know it, you're too old to do anything new. This is the golden time! The youth!"

"...uh huh."

"We need to do...something fun, something wicked, something _sexciting_..."

"...uh huh."

"Beach party in Comodo! Let's grab everyone! All the girls! You're paying for the expenses!"

"...uh huh--What? Wait!"

"Too late, pal!"

Hiroki looked up, suddenly wide awake. The fishing rod he was holding onto previously dropped from his hands. The brown-haired high priest known as Luzien, or more commonly amongst the females, Pervert, was already well on his way towards the gates leading to the city of Prontera, his mind set on this splendid idea to spend the holidays in the company of bikini-clad women.

Hiroki slapped himself then. Oh how utterly craptastic. He has yet again failed to stop his fellow high priest from acting like...well...not a high priest.

But wait a minute...all the girls...that means...Yuresia?

In a bikini?

Well, ever since she turned scholar, her attire had been, to put loosely, quite modest in comparison to many others.

Hiroki was straight, no matter what 90 percent of the population in Prontera assumed.

This may not turn out to be as bad as he had thought...

-----------------------------------------------------------

In the end, none of the Kafra Luzien had invited came. He resorted to complaining the entire way about how they were just jealous of the Comodo Kafra and her nifty orange two-piece uniform that was short and tight and in which he will be getting his fill of eyecandy from. Luzien was deathly secretive about what he was going to wear at the beach though. Hiroki thought it silly of him...wait, wasn't his friend always?

The girls who have accompanied them included the two priests' love interests and Safira with her -ahem- subordinate. Arkland and Yun tagged along just for kicks with Kaeru, who seemed to get along extremely well with the two of them.

They arrived at Comodo without incident, then Luzien proceeded to pounce the green-haired Kafra and was forced to eat a mouthful of sand by his paladin wife and the very violated caretaker of the beach town. Angela stormed off with the rest of the ladies to the changing rooms.

Luzien sat up and spat out the grains, running his tongue through his teeth. But he was smiling.

"Blue stripes with frills!" He exclaimed, as if he had found a hidden treasure. Arkland and Yun look mystified. Hiroki rolled his eyes.

"The Kafra's, of course. I know what Angela's is, I should, I picked it this morning." He went on musing aloud.

"What's he talking about?" Whispered Arkland to Kaeru, who sweatdropped and put a hand to his forehead.

"Um...he...hit his head...it's nothing, let's go." The high wizard ushered the scholar and his priest friend along, September the red-haired sage shuffled after them, his usual aloof self. The two high priests were left behind.

The black-haired priest looked down at his friend, who was still grinning giddily for some lewd reason.

It was going to be a long day ahead.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Hiroki was waiting for Luzien to come out of the changing rooms. The other priest was taking his sweet time while Hiroki had only thrown on a pair of plain black swimming shorts and a vaguely cheery orange-and-red sunset pattern shirt over his upper body. He wondered what was taking the brown-haired priest so long.

Luzien flung open the door of the changing stall with vigour like it was an obstacle in the way of a better view of the Comodo Kafra who was currently bending down - not that it was-. Hiroki sighed and turned around.

"What took you so lo--OH FOR THE LOVE OF DEAR GOD LUZIEN!"

"What?" Asked the taller priest, standing as such with all the glamour of a marble statue, his hands balled into fists at his hips.

"Th-th-th-that, that, that, thing you're wearing -or not wearing- or perhaps wearing!"

"Oh this?" Luzien looked down and realised what the Amatsujin priest was talking about. "It's the newest design from 'Speidos'. Chicks really dig it."

Hiroki could have thrown a fit.

"Look, Luz." He tried hard not to look, "Chicks won't 'dig' anything about that other than your grave! So, so, oh JUST PUT A TOWEL AROUND IT WILL YOU?!"

"No way," grinned the barely clad high priest, "You'll only realise how much of a sex beast this turns me into when you see it in action! Women shall swoon at my feet!"

Hiroki didn't want to see any 'action'. The only thing keeping him barely sane when his fellow priest had run off shouting something along the lines of 'My harem, here I come!' was the thought of his scholarly love interest in a bikini.

_To be continude...I mean -nued._

**A/N:** Characters from Dark Love belongs to Tela! And I think this is going to go nowhere, but I hope you enjoyed the whackoness of it all. I know it defeated the point of being a one-shot, but I ought to update or else **they** will maim me slowly and painfully. Naw just kidding.

So...um, let's start over again. Tela? Minane?


	7. Day Seven Christmas Stories

Aw, here I go with the doom that is sadness (it's not that bad really). Where's the happy Christmas spirit you ask? I killed it :o Nah, not really. It's all good in the end.

* * *

**Christmas Stories**

By Tela

Christmas was a happy time, wasn't it? Everyone said it was so it had to be. There was the snow glistening on the rooftops and coating everything with a seemingly perfect blanket of white. There was the holiday cheer and lively celebration everywhere. There were warm, crackling fires in the evenings with hot cocoa the company of family and friends. It seemed to be a joyous time for all.

He certainly had the snow; Glast Heim had no shortage of this. He had the holiday cheer and celebration. He even had the fire and hot cocoa. What he lacked was family. He had never had a real family to begin with. His family had abandoned him for all he knew. No one actually knew the truth of what happened. Even so, he survived and that was something to be thankful for, was it not?

The scholar stood let out a heavy sigh and set aside the book he was looking at more than actually reading. He stood from his desk and stretched. It was time he left the castle library and headed to his own home. Pushing his chair in, he grabbed his coat from the back of the chair and blew out the two lamps on his desk. He glanced at the clock on the desk, rather surprised at the time. It was later than he expected. No matter, it's not as if he had plans.

He slid on his coat and pulled the doors of the library shut behind him. He made his way down the hall only to be stopped for a moment. "You're leaving finally, Vangelis?" He turned and saw Athanas standing there with a stack of papers.

"Yes. I assume you have plans with _her_?" Vangelis asked, his voice clearly demonstrating his distaste for Athanas' love interest. The lord knight sighed; he had no wish for a fight. Vangelis didn't mean to sound so intolerable but it couldn't be helped. "I'm sorry. Have a good time," he managed to say with a small smile.

"Van, it's Christmas eve."

A thoughtful expression crossed the scholar's face. "So it is. I had forgotten." _No I haven't._

"You can always join me and Lila or even Nicholas and Julia if you can't stand the thought of being in the same room as Lila," the knight offered. He didn't want Vangelis to spend the holiday alone.

"I won't intrude. Besides, this is Nicholas and Julia's first Christmas together, you know that. I'll just head home. It's late and I, for one, am tired. Good night."

Athanas watched the scholar wave and continue down the hall until he disappeared around a corner. He hated for Vangelis to have no one. He said he didn't want to intrude, but he and Nicholas would have happily let him spend the evening with them. He was too stubborn to take the offer though. It was obvious that he was miserable.

Vangelis left the castle and strode down the steps and into the empty street. Fresh snow had fallen earlier that day and new flurries had begun to fall. The moon was merely a sliver of light in the dark night sky. It was quiet but that was to be expected as it was nearing ten and everyone was inside, most likely putting children to bed. Like a family, children were something he wouldn't experience first hand.

Pulling his coat closer, he turned off the main street toward his own home. He lived only a few houses away from Nicholas but he would leave them to their own tonight. Vangelis was paying little attention to anything but watching his breath in the cold winter air. Seemingly out of nowhere, he collided with something or rather, _someone_. They stumbled backward and tripped, falling rear first into the snowy street. "Ah! Sorry!" he exclaimed, hurrying over to help the person up.

"Oww..." He heard the person groan in an unmistakably female voice. He reached down and took her hands, pulling up upright. As he did, her hood fell back revealing an oddly familiar face and long silvery hair. He couldn't quite place her but he must have seen her somewhere before. "Not sure if I should thank you or not," she laughed good-naturedly as she dusted herself off.

"A bit late to be out, don't you think?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I could say the same to you but I'm just looking for an inn but so far, I've had no luck and it's getting really cold."

"I was just heading home. Just down the street in fact. You could come with me and warm up if you'd like. It's the least I can do for knocking you into the snow." He felt like an idiot for being so careless.

She looked very relieved when she heard his offer. She was absolutely frozen. "That would be great. Lead the way?" Vangelis nodded and started toward his home. She followed behind him quietly. Only a few minutes later they reached his door. He pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the heavy wood door, motioning for her to go inside. "Not much warmer in here," she commented.

Closing the door behind him, he nodded in agreement. "I'm not home much. I am a librarian and teacher at the castle and I spend most of my time there or with friends." He walked into his living room, which was in fact quite bare of everything but the essentials. He kneeled in front of the fireplace, placing a few logs and tinder.

"Why aren't you with friends or your family tonight? It _is_ Christmas Eve after all." The scholar paused, his depression returning at the mention of him being utterly alone. She seemed to notice his reaction and immediately quieted and took a seat in a chair close to the fireplace. Vangelis summoned a small flame to light the tinder and stood up, staring blankly as the logs caught fire. "Mmm…it's your turn to ask me an uncomfortable question," she added cheerfully.

He smiled slightly and laid his coat on the arm of a second chair. "I'll pass. You would think I would be used to this by now but holidays tend to get to me."

"It's all right; you're stuck with me for a while since you _did_ run me over," she teased. He sighed and put his hands over his face. "You have any books?" Her words peaked his interest. Anyone who knew him knew that he was an avid book reader.

"In the next room."

She stood and made her way into the other room and reappeared a few minutes later with a dusty old book. "I'm going to read you a Christmas story." She reseated herself and flipped through the pages of the book until she found one she liked. "This is a story about Christmas miracles." She began to read, her voice soft and comforting being paired with the low crackle and warmth of the fire. She was animated and not at all boring but the scholar felt his eyes droop. He tried to stay awake but finally, her voice lulled him to sleep. Something roused him ever so slightly. It felt like a light kiss to his forehead. He really must've been dreaming.

He woke the next morning in his chair, a little bit cold. The early morning light filtered through his snow-caked windows illuminating the room. He took a moment to process his thoughts and suddenly remembered his visitor. There was no sign of anyone having been there. No book in the room, no ashes in the fire and no woman. Did he dream the events of the previous night? This was the only explanation.

He moved slowly from the chair and headed for the kitchen. He hadn't even had dinner last night! Just then, something caught his eye. There was a sheet of paper on the mantle of the fireplace. Curiously, he picked it up.

_Thanks for letting me stay. It was more Christmas than I would have had otherwise. I cleaned the ashes out of the fireplace in case you were wondering. I'm willing to bet you would never get around to doing it. Thanks again, stranger. Merry Christmas. _

He wasn't dreaming after all.

* * *

A/N: I heart Van! I wonder who the woman could be...hmm XD I didn't have the heart to make this as angsty as I originally intended :3


	8. Day Eight

Sorry for the inconvienience, but our writers are running out of time so they can't post stories. As time increases, these gaps may be filled in. Thankyou for your patience if you are like that.


	9. Day Nine

Sorry for the inconvienience, but there was no submission on this day. Depending on the amount of time writers have, these gaps may be closed.


	10. Day Ten Mocking Bird pt1

AN: no, this has NOTHING to do with hiro and luz :P let's see….how should I put this…..drama? Sayo's personality originates from me. And this has NOTHING to do with Christmas. This is a two part story.

Mocking Bird

by Miname

_----_

_Sayonara……………_

She had never quite understood that word. Inside, she had this slight feeling that it meant something everybody knew but couldn't really place it. To her, this word was just gibberish that could be used as noun, verb, and adjective. When somebody said 'arg!' and 'sayonara!' it meant the same to her.

The tone of voice never helped either. At first, she thought it was a happy word judging by the chirpy sound of her mother calling to her as she went out to vend goods but then, her father said it after packing up to leave somewhere and his droopy face and fading voice destroyed all thoughts of happy. The only thing that presented a hint was a small absent part of her heart.

---

"Sayo!!!!"

My eyes snapped open in unsure surprise at a familiar and dreaded voice. Immediately, the mild, yet amazingly bright sun of Lutie shone down. I quickly shut my eyes in absent pain at the sudden light, remembering the date, time, and number of days until I could leave the madhouse I lived in. _Good morning Lutie. Welcome to another stupid stupid stupid day._

"Come down here!"

I squeezed my eyes until they hurt. _Go away voice. Just give me some more rest! I've been working already for years and years and years but I still have to work more! Just one little break!_

"Now or no food for six weeks and you'll be sleeping in the glass bin again!!"

I winced as the memory of ravaging hunger and broken glass being cut into my already beyond scarred skin. From the last I remembered, I had tried to eat crushed glass after two weeks and ended up getting a mouthful of bloody metallic tasting bandages as nobody would bother to take me to a medical priest. I didn't really care anyways though – I'd been hopeless and unwanted from the start so why should I?

Scrambling onto my feet, I scurried across the roof of a cheap and moldy tool shop and jumped off onto a stack of hay. The yellow grass flew into the air on impact and spread across the ground. A slight groan escaped my mouth at the thought of having to clean up the mess, finish chores, serve customers, and escape the owner's punishments, or more accurately, games in one day. My mind automatically counted in habit the number of days I would starve.

Less energized, I got to my feet and quickly ran to the backdoor of the much hated building, hoping that the damn woman that worked inside was in a generous mood.

Grabbing the door knob, I pulled – it was locked.

"Hurry up! I'll count to two!"

_She locked the door!_

I grabbed a stick from the ground and inserted it in the key hole and began to pick desperately. There was no familiar click. _Help me for once in a lifetime, god! You help those fat priests become rich bastards who are to lazy to say a single word! Why not me?!_

"One…..!"

_I've seen thieves do this!_

"Time's up!"

I heard the door go _click!_ as it was unlocked and a short woman covered with enough make up to make you sick and ugly wrinkly yellow skin appeared. Her droopy collapsed lips were curled in a cat smile. I felt like throwing up.

"No food for six weeks. If I catch you stealing, I'll feed you some ruby juice. You'll also be sleeping in the glass bin. If you try to get in a more comfortable position then I assigned you, I'll soak your clothes in bleach and make you wear them," she stated, a satisfied look in her eyes.

My stomach lurched and my throat began to burn at the memory of 'ruby juice.' In reality, it was actually liquefied cursed rubies. The owner could make these by pouring low power holy water over the ruby. The darkness will try to escape by liquefying. After bottling it, it was fed to me after I was well away from water. In order to make sure I lived after swallowing it, the woman would make me drink amplified holy water right when I was just about dead.

"Also, clean the shop and take care of customers. Clean yourself up to. You look like a disgrace. Next time you go walking around as you are, I'll be selling you to the brothel."

I gritted my teeth. The only reason why I was dressed in rags and smelled was because the fat woman hadn't bothered to give me a chance for rest and bath not to mention clean clothes.

Oblivious to my hating glare, she walked pass me.

---

"Give me one reason why I should let you live – just one."

A sneering priest stood above me, an ugly look on his face.

I'm really not sure how I ended out like this. As far as I was concerned, it was just a slow yet incredibly fast blur. There was a madwoman's scream, a metallic sound, and down came a knife. It may have been my fault since I was the one that provoked her but then again, she may have been the one that made me provoke her in the first place.

It seemed to make sense though I couldn't understand what I had done – just that the owner had been acting strange the entire day when she came back and ended out pulling weapons out of the shop drawers so she could throw them at me. However, that wasn't the point. The point was, I wasn't very good at dodging sharp objects.

-

"I said-" A foot dug into my ribs and a sharp pain burned through my flesh. "-give me one reason why you should live."

Moaning in pain like an injured dog, I rolled up into a ball, rocking my body back and forth in absent comfort.

I called pitifully, unable to state a truer reason, "Because I'm hurt."

Quite the underestimate – more like dead. My body was covered in inhuman holes from blunt knifes and my right arm and leg weren't existent anymore – they'd been taken care of by a spiky mace. If that weren't enough, you could see my spine through my skin.

Yet, I still wanted to live and even bothered to ask a priest for a simple heal that couldn't possibly do anything. In shorter words, living is like achohol – addictive, painful, yet unbearably blissful. That was probably one reason undead went around sucking your blood – because they though more blood is like life.

My still intact ear heard a spiteful laugh that, much like the owners', mocked my existence, dead or alive, knowingly, or unknowingly.

"Are you stupid or what?-" A mace dropped on where my arm used to be. I flinched at the numbly.- "Maybe you should just go to hell! -" the leftover part of my arm flew off – I screamed. My vision blacked out.

Behind me, I could hear footsteps walk away and the murmur of a departing crowd filled my head. As people went pass me, they stepped on my body and some even spat at my face. I whimpered and curled in a tighter ball. _This is your smiling gift, o God? This is how you see me to be?_

The crimson red puddle beneath me rippled as I moved in pain. I wanted to die – so much that I could kill myself. But I was too weak to do anything. I couldn't stop the pain, couldn't rest. I wondered for a moment if I would end out like the walking corpses in Payon Cave that were destined to be ripped apart by training novices with their passing priest companions - unreal.

Morbid thoughts played gleefully in my mind for a moment – thoughts that weren't mine – but may soon be. _o God, see what you have done? _

"Crises! Get help!"

_o God, where is your smiling gift you have promised me since those days?_

"_Are you okay!?!"_

--

to be continued..?


	11. Day Eleven 'Thanks, You too' pt3

AN - another non christmas story...well, er, battle. Yes, much of it is my mind relieving itself of stress by typing in my favorite type of scene - a battle scene. This is not reading for dummies and playing ragnarok and seeing some action movies may give you a better picture of what is being shown - I don't expect any reviews since this was for the sake of my stress level and probably rushed. Nice and short :D Don't ask about the order with part 1, 3, and 2 - it's special.

Again - you will only be able to connect this to part 1 if you have a super mind!!!!!!!!

'Thanks. You too.'

part 3 in _Mocking Bird_

by Miname

The wind was strangely airless – not quite there, you could say. Any cheery sun that might have been there was blocked out by dark clouds that had the look of impending doom. The usually passive and tranquil Al De Baran that gave stressed workers a haven of peace was filled with an unnerving tension and was practically dipped in a jar overflowing with miserable hearts. This day was so dark that it was frightening, not to mention the perfect day for a few suicide attempts, a green haired thief decided.

Picking at a simple lock with her hair pin, an irritated scowl on her face, the female thief wondered why she had accepted a job on such a depressing day. Chances were, her moral would dip so low, she would give up her job from pure gloom and end out sacrificing a one hundred zeny bet she made rashly not to mention stupidly. Remembering the look on the knight who had betted on her made her grind her teeth angrily. _Stupid stuck up knight!_

After a moment of expertly rotating her twin hair pin to form a makeshift key, an expected _click! _sounded to Lief's ear and the cheap one-use lock fell apart in pieces and into an open palm.

_'Easier than something other than pie,' _Jinnata, or Jinta thought as she remembered the first time she had tried to cook with a blob of dough before adding thoughtfully, _'A bit too easy'_.

The green haired thief swiftly opened the nicely decorated door and tumbled – a skill she learned from watching taekwons - backwards to avoid any sneaky assaults by wary sentries. After doing a few silly looking make-sure rolls and twirls, Jinta went back on her two feet, slid next to the doors and peeked through to check for hidden people.

The infiltrated room had none of the darkness of the outside city that looked like a dry swamp. There were magnificent probably double cut jewels decorating the shiny walls which were painted with an endless wildflower field view by an anonymous master artist. All furniture – chairs, beds, tables – had carvings of stories of mighty wyverns and strange alien creatures being united or hunted.

Jinta recognized a design with a glowing bird being chased by an arrow as a forbidden story a peasant had told her about the time when there were seven suns, the bird, and a master hunter who sought a true challenge. The hunter was told by villagers to shoot down the birds of sun for they were too hot and fields were dry. He shot down six and began a long battle with the last. The peasant had exclaimed magically that nobody knows who won, only that the villagers had pleaded the man, now gone mad from his will to black out the world, to not kill the last sun. Some said that the sun was shot down but its offspring came to power, whiles others viewed the mother bird as the winner in the epic battle.

All of this, including the floor that was painted into a sky, was amazing, almost supernatural, but Lief's eyes were on something else.

On the left of the room, a very dark and ugly chair was placed in the shadows, sticking out like a black rat in a pile of silk and gold. The wood it was made of was obviously rotting and growing mold from dampness. On the seat of the chair, a small necklace was spread across as if somebody had taken it off and carelessly thrown it away as they hurried to leave.

However, Jinta decided, this probably didn't happen since the necklace was the most beautiful thing in the world she had ever seen. The gold item threaded with small but shining jewels seemed to produce a shine of its own, making all the majestic furniture and paintings seem more like a drab background to a much superior object – the queen and her peasants.

Jinta felt her hand twitch and open at the thiefs need to steal something valuable. For a moment, she just stared like a hungry lion before reaching out to grab the irresistable necklace.

"I see our little god necklace has caught your eye."

Suprised, Jinata whipped around to view the culprit of surprise before immediately dropping on her belly to avoid an incoming knife. There was a slight _chink!_ of the knife chipping into the old moldy chair, a nerve racking reminder of near death. Jinta faked a slide and expertly tumbled backwards. By luck, a quick venom knife swished past her instead of hitting its target. Another soft _chink!_ followed by sixteen more made the female thief instinctively jump away in panic, avoiding a well aimed katar which then sliced back into her arm.

_'Assassin!!'_ her mind cried out in shock.

"Well, I guess you aren't too bad for a thief."

Jinta turned to view her offender. She quickly noted his stance – defensive. This meant that he wasn't going to attack for – the thief calculated in her head, averaging out experience, job, attitude.. – two minutes or after saying two smart things that were supposed to catch her off balance.

Readily, she answered, her cold voice to his mocking tone, flexing her mind skills, "Thanks. You too."

Immediately, she ducked a quick slice at her neck and slid behind her enemy to avoid getting an alternating downward slice for her head. Jinta slipped out her dagger and blocked the next to most vulnerable part of her body – the stomach – from the assassin's other katar.

Quick reaction is valuable in survival but so is strength, something the experienced thief didn't have enough of. Jinta felt her own stiletto get pushed against her stomach by the pure strength of her offender. Below, she heard her feet slide back on the floor, creating a slight scratching sound.

Jinta gritted her teeth – she wasn't too strong against a full fledged assassin. If this continued, she would have her stiletto molded in her bleeding stomach. Attempting to push the katars up a inch so she could slip away before the assassin became bored of staring at her panicky face and decide to cut open her stomach, Jinta felt her energy drain away.

The desparate thief saw the enemy assassin's brown eyes glinted maliciously and his lips formed a smiling line of truimph.

"Well, anyways, you aren't good enough!" he mocked. He slid his katar away, ducked so that Jinta fell over him, and the lunged her exposed back.

Jinta's eyes snapped open in shock as she fell forward. Her mind desperately scanned her mind for survival before screaming at her what to do.

The female thief placed one foot in front of her and spun on the ground and kicked the assassin's leg, remembering in desperation her taekwon skills.

Dropping her knife, Jinta felt her mind switch from careful thief to berserker taekwon. The assassin stared incredulously as the female taekwon dressed on a thief outfit slid across the floor. He sliced at the now different girl. Her techniques, stance, and look in her eyes was completely alien from before.

To his ultimate surprise, the girl jumped onto his katar and sprung behind him and twirled behind him to deliver a kick in a back. He felt himself crash to the floor and a quick jab at his neck blacked out his vision. With his eyes closed, he could feel a darker darkness swirl in like the fresh wind of his homeland, Payon.

----_connecting part 1 with part 3_

"She doesn't like you :/"

A little taekwon girl, roughly age six stared with big innocent hazel eyes at her miserable lord knight companion who stared at her as if she were crazy. Apparently, his mind processed unbelieving, she had just said that an apocolypse didn't like him – he felt like dying in laughter.

"Are you kidding?" he laughed silently as he watched out for bio labs, "He's the apocalypse. Of course he doesn't. He hates _all_ human beings including you, okay stupid? So just shut up for a moment before the bio labs hear you and get us all killed."

Staring with a confused look on her face, the puny girl shook her head and pointed to the rotating head of the apocalypse they had both been so unfortunate as to stumble upon.

"I don't know what you are talking about," she said in a very genuinely confused voice, "I think you meant _she_. The acolpalyspy whatever you call it is a she and her real name is HiamuRung. And she only doesn't like you 'cause you have this weird look on your face."

The lord knight bonked his taekwon companion on the head.

"Now you're really crazy. Tell me, how do you know about this. Apocalypses don't speak and will kill you at chance."

The smiley face of the stupid girl chirped up at the chance to correct him again with insane facts and she piped happily, "There is only one apocalypsey thingy :0! HiamuRung is just resurrected automatically by her own soul remnant. And she can speak! But she says she sounds evil and cruel like a Dark Lord or whatever so she doesn't :/"

Pointing at the turning head of the apocalypse, the airhead girl exclaimed, "And the way the head rotates represents what she says:D Right now…she is saying….her favorite food is….s-t-r-a-w-b-e-r-r-y-c-h-i-c-k-e-n-s….strawberry chickens:D"

The lord knight sighed. He attempted to remember how his friend had managed to convince him to take care of some random girl found on the street two years ago. However it was, it must have been really convincing since this girl was damn annoying not to mention a gift from devil's egg.

He glanced at the happy face of the little beat up girl he had found one day lying half dead on a plaza without any limbs and no skin or memory. At first, he had taken pity, and decided to help, but eventually, the girl grew to fast with her mechanical limbs and became this mecha-taekwon – pretty freaky.


	12. Day Twelve Commotion in Comodo 2

**Commotion in Comodo Part 2**

A character butchering galore

By Halcyon Clouds

"..."

Yun stopped right outside the entrance to the male changing rooms. The priest glanced at the door cautiously with his single visible eye and pursed lips. If it was discomfort, it did not show itself through the slightly oversized cassocks, dark hair, and a magician hat with the brim lowered over Yun's face.

"Come on, Yun." Calling to his friend, Arkland pushed open the door. An ominous atmosphere oozed out from within. One that told of abundant body hair, sweat, alcohol, and other odours best left undescribed.

The scholar hesitated as well, and looked sheepishly towards the oldest person in the group. Kaeru gulped, he felt he had a responsibility to take care of these two, but said responsibility was looking a little daunting at that moment.

What leapt into sight were rows and rows of pulsing...flesh and muscle, followed by many deep, manly noises. And hair, straight hair, wavy hair, but mostly curly hair on chests. Just...hair.

"Right." Kaeru mumbled, "Of course...Pronteran Army against the Albertan Smithers in a friendly volleyball match...Alexander's been on about it all week...mhmm, I see...well, let's...move along...now."

It seemed as if all coasts were clear as they left the grunting and snorting mass of testosterone behind them, Yun was clinging onto Arkland's fox like his life depended on it. Arkland and Kaeru were also as whitewashed as ghosts.

"Let's...get out after changing and never come back." The high wizard said in a peculiarly small, quivering voice.

"Yes. Right." The white-haired-white-faced scholar agreed.

"..."

Then something tall and flesh-coloured darted across their collective vision. Wearing an obscenely small and tight BRIGHT RED...thing...stretched across his...

Then it was gone, like an illusion.

There was a pause for a few seconds, or maybe more. As the three people pondered over what had just happened.

"What...the hell was that?"

"It looked familiar..."

"..."

Yun burst out of the changing room then, leaving a trail of knocked over hairy bodies like bowling pins in his wake.

* * *

The women stretched themselves luxuriously over the large beach mat, wondering where the rest of the opposite gender had gone. Hmph, and they say women take too long in the washrooms! The only exception to that was September, who had miraculously gotten out faster than any of them. 

"My," Angela commented to Safira as the sage set up the beach parasol without a word, "Your assisstant is...so...efficient and meticulous. I'm almost envious."

"You have to train them well." The high wizard whispered secretively to the paladin, September stiffened for just a fraction of a second before proceeding with his setup.

Angela wanted to know what she meant by 'train'.

"I'll give you some tips," Safira smiled deviously, "You can try them on your husband when he gets back too."

The paladin rolled her eyes, IF the pompous lamp post of a high priest would come back anytime soon without sandal marks all over his face.

Hiroki approached their spot from a distance away, not one of the three people looked like Yuresia and, thankfully, Luzien. When he got close enough, he raised a hand in some gesture of greeting.

"Hey guys--"

Then he spotted HER down the beach.

"AAAH! A ZEALOTUS! Quick! Aspersio! Impostio Manus! Get a mace! DO SOMETHING BEFORE SHE SUMMONS NAKED ABUSED MEN!"

"Shut up, Hiroki." Yuresia the scholar snapped and approached, an ice cream cone in each hand, the high priest stopped fretting and looked her up and down. She had on a low v-necked onepiece swimsuit that was half red and half black. Her long blue hair flowed down to her waist. From a distance, she really did look like that notorious dominatrix monster.

"Yure! Uh..." His eyes darted off to the surroundings, blue water, blue sky, pink sand, but refrained from looking straight ahead and towards her chest area, "This is...haha, not what I was expecting..."

She shoved one of the ice creams into his hands, green tea, his favourite flavour. "Thanks for the compliment."

Safira and Angela made a silent "ooooh" sound with their mouths and winced behind him as the scholar brushed past and sat herself down on the carpets with her own cold dessert.

That was...really really smooth.

End Part 2

* * *

A/N: I'd never get this finished! NEVER! 


	13. Day Thirteen Cloudy Day pt1

AN: a fairytale and RO crossover :D mainly humor based, but part of it is pure confusion and naïve talk :3 I wanted to finish it but I couldn't for the sake of updating so now it's in parts :/

Cloudy Day pt1

The sky was cloudy today. The sky was cloudy yesterday. The sky will be cloudy tomorrow, the day after, a few years after, and definitely for the next half billion years for a few invalid yet simple and understandable reasons. You may, but nobody cares about those invalid yet simple and understandable reasons. They only care that the sky is cloudy and will continue to stare at the weather reports (which are one of the most used information services) second after second to check the weather for tomorrow which will without doubt, be cloudy.

Isianadilladorious Loddylill Ridiniwyverdale Doublepockodle Denmark……, also known as Lina Grey Hoody, sometimes called Lina Grey, aka Inagrey, woke up to the morning cloud. After glancing at her weather fortune calendar, she got unto her feet and reached for her samp glasses, also known as sun amplifier glasses (as it was a cloudy day), as it was a day filled with grey puff balls known as cloudy according to her calendar which had been made by the most trusted and accurate weather calendar corporation in the world. After grabbing and then putting them on, she pulled a bright yellow hooded dress with a happy flower pattern she had drew on herself when she was eight over her head.

"Inagrey!" a voice Nagrey recognized as her mother's called out, "Quickly dress up and fetch some angel wings for your grandma!"

Hurriedly, Nagrey clicked on her teleport clip, a useful item when it came to facing the big, evil apocalypse who prowled the streets of some cities like a shadow over the permanent smiles of porings before rushing out of her room and sprinting down the hall of her home.

"Yeah yeah!" she screamed to her mother as she jumped the stairs sixteen at a time, "I'll be going in like…..a second!"

Nagrey zoomed past her mother to the door like lightening going for…a lightening rod. Not bothering to snatch some breakfast, she flung open the door and ran off.

Behind her, a soft and distant mother called out warningly, worry touching her voice, "And make sure the old merchant lump doesn't get you or else she'll eat you up!" There was no reply as Nagrey was already a few miles off, being a top runner in the small world of Juno.

Section 1---- Ginger Bread Man

"Don't step on me!"

Nagrey stopped dead at the awfully familiar voice. She lifted her foot curiously and stared at a very delicious and funny looking piece of bread with a cranberry smile and raisin bran eyes.

Her mouth dropped open in bewilderment and her eyes widened into humongous saucers the size of wagon wheels. She dropped on her knees to get a better look at her amazing discovery.

"You're the Toolshop Bread Boy!" she cried in delight.

The piece of flabby bread deflattened itself with a _pop! _and steadied itself on his feet carefully before looking up, with a insulted look on it's cranberries and raisin bran.

"Wrong!" he cried, obviously outraged, "I'm the Gingerbread Man!" He leaned forward with squinty raisin brans and pointed at Nagrey suspiciously shouting, "You got a problem with that? – huh? Huh?! HUH!?!?"

The response was a puzzled stare.

"Who's the gingerbread man?"

The bread stared outraged. "What!? You don't know?"

"No, no."

The bread hopped onto Nagrey's knee and cried, "Then I will tell you!"

"Once there was an old folk that wanted children so they made some bread and made me! Eventually, I ran away and got chased by an apocalypse and some porings."

Nagrey stared confused and cried out, "Wait. Let me guess – the tool shop people made some bread to accompany coffee and it just seemed that some accident happened and you came alive and later, some porings decided to eat you up."

The bread cried out, "No, no, no way jose! All wrong! I don't like you and I do only one thing to people I don't like!" The Toolshop Bread Boy hopped on to Nagrey's shoulder and grabbed – "Yoink!" her teleport pin.

Quickly hopping off excitingly, he sprinted with the clip on flat head into a shining white portal.

Surprised, Nagrey bounced onto her feet like a torpedo and shot to a ponytail kafra as everyone had decided to call her, not bothering to find out her name.

"Warp! Warp! Warp! Warp, warp, warp, warp, WARPP!!!!!!!" she screamed jumpitityly (which is not a word but fits the needs nicely) as she shoved uncounted zeny into the unfortunate woman's hands.

"Where?" the kafra asked, "I-"

"Maybe Geffen!"

"Well….if it's fine with you…" the kafra sighed as she scanned through her memory, remembering the million of times such incedents like this had happened.

The familiar sight of a black haired girl with scary flashing hazel eyes jumping in a white column of pure light was seen once more as it was seen everyday on the exact time, kafra. The only thing, you could say, is why she jumps in.

Section 2----- Hansels and Gretels

Not quite here yet……


	14. Day Fourteen I Hate You

**A/N:** Mmk:D These are my characters in my new upcoming story... I just wanted to get use to writing them more! Wee!

**I Hate You.**

**By:** Hopelessmine!

"You must either be really stupid, or really smart," I breathed, closing my eyes as I pressed the back of my head hard against the wall.

"Probably the latter," was his even reply, as he knelt down and fiddled with a device of some sort.

Opening my eyes again, I took a deep breath again, and looked suspiciously at his slightly shadowed figure in front of me. "Are you sure this will work?"

"Calm down, Clair." Shrugging, he stood, and gave me a wary smile. "We'll just have to follow what goes."

"Oho," Straightening myself, I allowed myself to glower at him. "That's really a comforting statement, Mr. Professor"

"Mm." Siscern's calm eyes surveyed the area in front of us, examining the target area. "Alright, Clair. On the count of three..."

"Pfft, how childish," I rolled my eyes, unable to keep a cold fear from rising in my throat.

"One..."

"I really hate you and this stupid plan right now, you know?"

"Two..."

"No, I'm serious. I really,_ really_ hate it."

"Three..."

"Augh! You _so_ owe me big time."

And with that, I bolted. Bolted out into the open— the target area. Shouts from all different directions sounded, and numerous footsteps pounded after me.

_Ahhhhhhh!_ Shaking my hair frantically out of the way, I ran even faster, if that was possible. With each step, my body jolted. Up. Down. Up. Down. I squeaked as bullets raced past me, hitting various objects ahead of me. Taking a deep breath, I opened my mouth wide:

"_I HATE YOU, SISCERRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNN!"_

And I ran for my life— literally.

* * *

"Now, wasn't that fun?" Siscern said, an amused tone wedging its way into his tranquil voice. 

"Yes," I retorted very sarcastically, collapsing on the ground, panting heavily. "Yes, that was _very_ fun, thank you very much. I think I'll go for a round two sometime soon."

Amusement shone brighter in his eyes, as he heard the anger in my voice.

"Anyways," I continued, "Did you get whatever you were going for?"

The professor blinked, then nodded. "Yes."

"Good." Reaching forward, I loosened the straps of my boots slightly. "It's nice to know I didn't have five minutes of pure terror for nothing."

"Mm..." Sliding down the wall until he was sitting next to my hunched figure, he looked up at the dimming evening sky. "Christmas is tomorrow, you know."

"No, really?" I crossed my arms, huffily, feeling more than a little miffed. Seeing him rotate his gaze from the sky to me, I sighed. "Just— don't remind me. It's depressing on so many levels."

"Ah." And he went back to sky-gazing again.

We sat in silence for another few moments again, our shadows steadily getting longer with every passing second.

Something nagged at the back of my mind, and I silently wondered if I should voice the thought.

_No,_ the prideful part of my mind answered.

_Yes,_ the other part shot back.

_No._

_Yes._

_No._

_Yes._

_N— _

"Something's bothering you."

Jerking slightly, I swung my gaze to meet Siscern's.

"Oh, no. It's nothing." Shaking my head, I lost myself in my mind war again, letting the silence resume its place.

Then...

"... do you think it'll be different?" The painstakingly easy, yet hard words to say fell from my mouth in a faint whisper. Immediately after I said that, I regretfully wished I had never said them. How childish had I sounded?

Without even looking at the professor, I knew that he was looking at me once again. He had heard.

When there was no response, I sighed, knowing he was waiting for me to elaborate on my odd question.

"Is this..." Clearing my throat, I raised my voice slightly. "Is this Christmas going to be different from the other ones?"

There was a pause. Then... "Why do you ask?"

I paused. "Oh, no. No reason." _Like you'd care, anyways,_ my mind added ruefully.

Le Professeur shifted slightly, absent-mindedly shaking his hair out of his eyes. "Well," he began, voice deep in thought. "I believe it will if you want it to be."

I turned and stared— scrutinizing him. "How so?"

"Mm, well, for starters," he blinked and turned his face, staring back at me, deep purple swirling with unreadable emotions. "There's always mind over matter. You can also use your mind to overcome your true feelings, and—"

"— I'm not in the mood for your little psychology lessons," I snapped, suddenly feeling anger surge through my veins. Tiredness washed over me. "Just forget it, _Sissy."_

Shaking my head, I redrew my legs and rose from my position. "I'll meet you back 'headquarters'," I murmured softly, reaching for my quiver and bow. "I'm out of here. Besides, it looks like it's going to rain."

As I turned to make my way out of the narrow alleyway we were stationed in, I felt a hand wrap around my wrist tenderly.

"Don't go." Siscern's voice crept from the shadows where he was still sitting.

"Sorry to disappoint," I turned and glared at him, feeling my anger mount. "But I really _don't care _about your opinion right now." Shaking off his hand with tremendous force, I gave the Professor a hard look, before turning away again.

The next second, I was engulfed by gentle arms, stopping me in my tracks. I could feel his soft, flittering breathing, as his forehead rested against the back of my head, raising the hairs on my neck.

I froze in his embrace, unsure of what to do. "Sis-Siscern, w-what are– what're you d-doing?"

"Don't go." I felt cool breath fluttering over my skin as he spoke. "Don't go. Stay here."

My anger vanished in an instant, as alarm took over. "W-what're you talking about, Siscern? I'm just going back to headquarters."

"I know," I shivered slightly as he spoke again, releasing another soft wisp of air. Instinctively, he tightened his hold around me. "But, don't go."

Now I was truly puzzled by his actions. "... Why?"

"Don't you want to know why I did what I did today?" He pressed his forehead tighter against my hair, breathing my scent in. "Do you want to know what I got?"

I had to admit, I _was_ curious over this unexpected mission today. "Alright, then," I sighed, giving in. "Why, Siscern?"

"Look up." Two words.

Blinking in confusion, I slowly raised my head, preparing for the worst. And I was met with the sight of...

Up above us on a rafter hung a small pile of leaves.

... Leaves?

"Leaves?" I voiced my inward thought.What was going on?

"Mistletoe, actually," Siscern corrected me, pleasantly. I froze.

"Oh, _no." _I whispered, eyes widening. "Ohhh, nonononono." Pushing myself away from Siscern's body, I spun around fully, eyes wide with confusion and anger.

"Whatever," I let out a deep breath, watching Siscern's calm, amused face with a growing sense of fury. "Whatever you, and whoever else that's involved in this, are planning, I'm not going to take part in _any way_— especially by being the subject of this experiment!"

Siscern blinked at me, then shrugged lightly. "There's no plan to this."

My mouth dropped open indignantly. _"Liar!"_

The professeur sighed and looked at me wearily. "I'm not lying, Clairissa."

"Don't call me that," I hissed, trying to keep the growing self-doubt down. "And _yes, _you're lying."

"No, I'm not." Siscern shook his head slowly, his unruly hair shifting, as the sides of his lips quirked up slightly. "I'm really not."

"Okay, fine." I crossed my arms, eyes peering sharply at him. "Let's say it isn't a plan. Then what is it?"

"It's the holidays, Clair." His smile quickly grew, and he rolled his eyes at me. "This is what we do when Christmas time comes around."

Wait... "Wait..." My mouth fell open once more, as I realization suddenly hit me. "So the whole reason you sent me out to my death today was because _YOU WANTED TO GET MISTLETOE?!"_

"Of course." Siscern looked up at the plant hanging above us with interest.

"Of_ course?_ You— you—" I could barely get the words out of my mouth, as anger burst from me like a volcano. I think I saw red. "You... _INGRATE!"_

I raised my hand to smack the Professor, when a hand wrapped around my wrist again. I snarled at Siscern, livid. "Let go of me! I'm going to kill you!"

"Sorry, I can't let you do that yet." Siscern was still staring up at the mistletoe, studying it calmly. He wasn't even paying attention to me and my anger at all!

Argh! Jerking my arm out of his grasp, I raised it again, determined to make a big red mark across his annoyingly placid face, when—

— his lips met mine.

I froze, mouth parting slightly, as I almost choked in disbelief. Was he— he was— no way in—

"Ack!" My brain returning to normal function again, I jumped away with lightening speed, eyes wide open as I stared at him in shock.

Siscern leaned back, a small smile playing across his features, as he watched me. "Hm."

Oh... my... "Don't _'Hm' _me!" I shrieked, pointing a shaking finger at him. "You— you _kissed _me!"

"Oh, really? I didn't realize that." Siscern snorted sarcastically, still smiling.

"How_ could _you! You— you take– take-advanteger!" I fumbled with my words, still numb from the trauma. "You're an evil person!"

"Yes," Siscern reached down for his bag, voice hinted with amusement. "Yes, I'm an evil, vile person. After all, I'm a _take-advanteger." _He made sure to stress out my made-up word.

"Shut up," I muttered, looking away. Suddenly, my head jolted up as something came across my mind. "Hey! It's not even Christmas yet! You can't kiss me! It doesn't count! Hah! You lose! Loser!" I started to do a victory dance in the alleyway, feeling very triumphant over my discovery.

Siscern seemed quite entertained as he looked at me dancing over my victory. "I don't know about the kiss not counting, but oh, well," Shrugging, he slung his bag over his shoulder, and proceeded to walk past my jig, patting me on the shoulder as he went by. "Guess I'll have to do it all over again tomorrow. Good thing I decided to prepare an emergency batch of mistletoe."

I stiffened in my position, feeling suddenly faint. Turning around very slowly, I watched his back as he walked away, eyes wide in disbelief. "Wh... what did you say?"

Siscern swung around, walking backwards now. "You know what I said," he said, eyes glinting wickedly. "Let's go, Clair. It looks like it's going to rain."

With that, he turned around again, hair ruffling in the cold breeze. I stared wordlessly after him, still trying to comprehend this new horror that was awaiting me tomorrow.

Taking a huge, deep breath, I opened my mouth wide, letting my feelings out, summed up nicely in four words:

"_I HATE YOU, SISCERRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNN!"_

* * *

Fin

* * *

**A/N:** Rawr! This is not going to be part of my main story! No, no, no! This is a side-story! I like side-stories! Anything can happen. Ohohohoho. I'm so happy that I finally finished this! Yayy! Ebil homework. D: 


	15. Day Fifteen

Umm...we'll be replacing this day with something. GoGo busy oh porings members!


	16. Day Sixteen

Lalala...Sorry again! We're working on it. I promise.


	17. Day Seventeen

-writes furiously- Gimme a break. Who set this DIFFICULT goal of one oneshot a day?!

Oh wait.

That was me...

Bad Tela.

Work brain work!

o.O

O.o

x.x


	18. Day Eighteen

Once again...empty day. GAH! I'm going to finish this darn it -shakes fist-

Hey, I have a joke for you. Why did the chicken cross the road?

Can you guess?

How about now?

Now?

To get to the other side! HAHA XD

I love you.

Really I do.

Promise.


	19. Day Nineteen Don't Leave Me:Pt 1

OMG WE SUCK AT UPDATING THIS THING! Lol! We've all been busy...this one isn't christmas themed but read it anyway.

**Don't Leave Me: Part 1**

**By Tela**

The blazing Morrocan sun beat down on the two bodies trudging through the seemingly endless desert. There was no wind today to lessen the heat or cool down the surface of the sand. They must have made some spirit angry to have such horrid, dry weather.

As a young thief of only ten, Asira had not experienced such extremes just yet and she felt as if she would topple over any minute. If she did, the sand would burn like hell so fainting was _not_ an option. She wiped the sweat beading on her forehead and felt that her wild auburn hair was damp. If she hadn't gotten caught stealing, she would never have been out here. Looking over to her "captor", as she referred to him, she scowled. He merely smirked and kept walking. "This is the worst day _ever_." Fay sighed.

"Maybe if you didn't try to steal from me we wouldn't be out here." He replied casually. So maybe pick pocketing an assassin was a bad idea. She was desperate!

"So what, are you gonna kill me and bury me in the sand or something?" She asked. The assassin smiled and pulled the fabric of his mask back over the lower part of his face. Silly thief girl. He had to teach her a lesson and apparently, no one else would be doing it but him since she was obviously without family. He had family once. He had a little sister…once.

"Fearless, huh?" She nodded proudly at his comment. If anything, she was overconfident and proud of it. Mostly, it was the only way she knew how to survive. For more than five years of her life, she had been alone. If she was confident, she could take risks. Those risks let her eat and live.

_Early that morning he had been minding his own business in Morroc, about to buy a few potions from a merchant when he felt something shift slightly. His hand instantly shot out and grabbed the slender arm of a thief girl of about ten or eleven. _

_She stared at him with wide brown eyes until she finally realized what was happening. In that instant she tried to yank her arm out of his grip with no success. Taking his money back from her, he finished his purchase with one hand still holding her arm. He led her away from the merchant and to the north gate where he stopped and looked at her. She indignantly stuck her tongue out and crossed her arms. "Stupid assassins." She muttered._

"_Stupid thieves." He replied as childishly as he could. "I should have handed you over to one of the guards." _

"_Well why didn't you, huh?" She stopped and demanded. He shrugged and pulled her along with him. They left city and walked and walked and walked some more. Now, here they were, still in the middle of the desert._

"Come on, we're almost there." He said and began walking again. After a short time, the most gorgeous things came into Asira's view. A little oasis complete with a large pond of water and huge palm trees. He laughed as he noticed her glazed over expression. "I don't know how it exists in the middle of a desert but it's here."

"Shade!" She exclaimed gleefully and took off running to the little piece of paradise. The assassin followed with a grin hidden behind the mask. The thief plopped down under the shade of one of the large palms and leaned against the trunk. "What'd you bring me out here for?" She asked.

He strode over to one of the much smaller trees and pulled a bag down that he had tied there earlier. "I kinda live here I guess." He pulled an apple from the bag and tossed it to her. "So I'm guessing no family? Guardian?"

"No…" She said, her voice tinged with sadness. "My dad left me after I turned five. He said he never wanted me in the first place. I dunno what happened to my mom." I would have been one thing if he said he was coming back and never did. No, he blatantly said he didn't want her and he was leaving. He even threatened to hurt her if she tried to follow him. "So what's your name anyway?"

"Sabri. How about yours, little thief?" He asked in reply as he sat in front of her.

"Asira and I'm not that little! How come you live all the out here? It's sooo far." Sabri thought for a moment and sighed. It was far from people and no one would bother him. Mostly, he didn't want anyone to disturb his brooding, dark moods.

He too had had a childhood trauma. Only, his family left in a different way. An assassin had murdered them right before his eyes. It was funny that he became the thing he hated most. He never knew why it had happened to them or why he was allowed to live. If he ever found the one responsible for their demise, there would be hell to pay.

"Hellooo? Sabri?"

He looked back at her, snapping out of his daze. "Sorry."

"Life sucks, don't ya think?" She gave a halfhearted smile and munched on the apple. She never really had a good experience in her life so her outlook was, to say the least, bleak. For only ten years old, she knew more than most did about the harshness of life, not only from surviving, but also from people. More often than not, people ignored her and looked down on her for the things she did. Not once did they think that she had no other choice. Not once did a rich couple think that she was in need of a home.

"Yeah, it does. You remind me of my little sister." She had a personality similar to Asira's, he noticed.

"You have a sister? Where is she?" The thief's eyes widened at perhaps having a friend. Even Sabri didn't seem so bad. He was pretty nice actually, unlike many assassin's she had come across. She had had a very bad experience recently and somehow managed to get away with her life.

"She…she's dead."

"Oh…sorry. When?"

"A long time ago. She was only seven. I was thirteen then. It's been six years…" He should've tried to protect her after their parents had been killed but no, all he could do was yell and cry and watch in fear. "It doesn't matter anymore." Asira suddenly turned angry.

"It does too matter! You're still sad…" He shrugged indifferently at her words. She tossed her apple core into the sand and wrapped her small arms around his shoulders in a fierce hug. She didn't really know him but he was kind to her when everyone else was not. He went still as she hugged him but he couldn't help but smile. After a few moments, he put his arms around her skinny frame. She probably needed a little affection more than he did.

"Can…I stay with you?" She asked, pulling away from him. He was a little surprised that she would want to stay around him but how could he tell her no? She did need someone to help her.

"Sure." His answer filled the thief with great relief. She wouldn't have to be alone anymore. He would be like the big brother she wished she had so many times. Suddenly he grabbed her roughly and pushed them both to the ground as a dagger came flying by their heads and buried itself in the trunk of the palm tree behind her.

"Oh no...no, no, no! They found me!" She said fearfully, noting the marking on the dagger. Sabri saw three assassins approaching slowly as if they had nothng to fear.

"Asira, take this fly wing and get away from here. Go back to Morroc and hide." He said, placing the wings in her hand. There was no way he could take on three assassins but he could at least try to protect her.

**A/N**: Oh noes!


	20. Day Twenty

Sorry about the inconvenience. Hopefully we'll have something up soon.


	21. Day Twenty One

Sorry about the inconvenience. Hopefully we'll have something up soon.


	22. Day Twenty Two

Sorry about the inconvenience. Hopefully we'll have something up soon.


	23. Day Twenty Three

Sorry about the inconvenience. Hopefully we'll have something up soon.


	24. Day Twenty Four

Sorry about the inconvenience. Hopefully we'll have something up soon.


	25. Day Twenty Five Toy Soldier

A.N: WHEW. Well, I suppose this is the last one for this Christmas collection. Sorry about all the trouble with updating, and thank you all for your support. Enjoy.

--

**Toy Soldier**

Anonymoussi

_Just this once, I'd like to see Polaris again._

--

When Aurel was five, his mother would take him around to all the toy shops in Prontera during the wintertime. Through waves of softly drifting snow, they would admire every display, with their bright dripping lights and spreads of dolls and sweets.

On Christmas Eve, his mother would let him pick one toy.

When he was eight, he chose a toy soldier.

--

_The pain was nearly unbearable. Thank goodness it was only a memory._

_Aurel stood on the cliff before the impressive silhouette of the city and let his distant past pound down on him like the blizzard clawing at his clothes. _

_The snow whirled around him and howled forlornly. Other than that, there was silence._

_He sighed heavily and began to walk._

_--_

The toy soldier sat on his bedside table for a night. His mother had wanted to wrap it up and have a real gift-opening ceremony about it. Aurel had wanted it by his side. He let her tie a red ribbon around the soldier's helmet, and that was that.

When he woke up in the morning, the toy soldier was still there. The ribbon was there, too, red as the paint on the soldier's jacket.

He ate breakfast with the soldier by his side. It peered at him through eyes painted white with wide dots of black, and his mother laughed at him and called him silly.

While his mother wrapped last-minute gifts and tidied the house for Christmas dinner and put the ham on to roast, Aurel danced around with the soldier. When he was tired of that, he played sentry and guard with it, and after that, heroes and villains. Just for the sake of his new, best Christmas gift yet, Aurel had let the soldier play the hero. And after they grew tired of that, his mother had announced that it was time to go out and meet their family for brunch.

She wouldn't let him take the soldier with him. He wanted it with him, pleaded and put on airs and faces and almost, almost pretended to cry. She said no. Someone might take it, she reasoned. And finally, he begged her if he could unwrap the gift.

She had hesitated. Her eyes had traveled between Aurel and his toy, uncertainty he had never seen in his beautiful, strong mother. And in the end, she had said yes.

Off flew the ribbon, and it fluttered and settled onto the carpet, where it lay for who-knew-how-long. The toy soldier grinned its poster paint grin at him as he walked out the door, led by his mother's hand.

He had grinned too. I'll be back, he'd said. And he could have sworn that its eyes had twinkled in response.

--

_The snow dripped through his long hair and into his eyes. He stood before the boarded windows and doors, the badly repaired cracked glass with a large black X painted on it. There was a worm sheet of cloth tacked over the window, soaked through with the snow, that read "Out of Business."_

_Ten years. Ten years was all it took._

_Aurel stretched a hand out. Through the bandages on his fingers, he could still feel the smoothness of the glass where it hadn't been shattered and then taped jaggedly together. Cold and hard._

"_I'll come back for you," he whispered, like he meant it._

_The windows and empty streets were there to watch him walk away._

--

Hypothetically speaking, the world had ended on that afternoon.

On the walk to the restaurant, his mother had seemed distracted. Anxious, maybe. She glanced from left to right, sometimes turning all the way around, as though looking for someone. And then, when she wouldn't find the person, she would turn forward and walk on.

He had asked her if there was anything wrong. She had told him no, knelt down and hugged him. If anything ever happens to you, she had said, run away as far as you can from our house, and never return.

How could she say things like that if there was nothing wrong? He had told her so. For a moment, she had looked troubled, and then she had ruffled his hair and smiled like usual. Of course, she was being silly. What was she talking about? And then she had hugged him one last time, and told him that he was the best little boy that she could have ever hoped to have.

Going up the walkway to their favorite café with the snow falling lightly around them, his mother had stopped as though frozen. When he asked her what was wrong, she didn't answer. And when he had tugged on her hand, concerned, she had crumpled to her knees and fallen face-first into the snow.

--

_The Christmas tree had fallen over. Aurel didn't know whether to laugh or cry._

_Other than that, everything was the same. Dust had collected on the carpet, making its rich wine color even darker. The grandfather clock in the far corner of the room was still ticking. The brass of the pendulum was tarnished nearly black. The glass casing was mottled brown with age._

_Aurel cast his gaze across the floor and found what he was looking for._

_There was a small gold bell laying on the floor as though it had been unceremoniously thrown there. Aurel picked it up and pocketed it, and then blinked at something he had not seen before._

_On the carpet next to the bell's vacated spot was a thin ribbon curled about itself. Its color was iridescent, the red of soldiers' blood. _

_On impulse, Aurel took that, too. Then he left, scattering dust in his wake._

_­_Aurel breathed hard through his gritted teeth and hurled a knife at the wall. It missed the man's hand by an inch.

"Your anger is unreasonable," his victim crowed disdainfully, despite the fact that he was on his death bed.

"You've no room to talk," Aurel snarled, and threw another knife. It thudded hollowly on the other side of the man's hand. "All your officers are dead, your wife deserted you for another rich, filthy debonair, and your scheming and conniving relatives are no longer breathing, which will be the same for you."

The governor waved a hand. "My wife? She was a minx. She only wanted my money, and now it can't be hers. And my officers' lives were of no consequence."

Aurel flicked his wrist. This time, the knife was a hair's breadth from the governor's ear.

"So they were just pawns, too?" he huffed, drawing his katars. He had seen enough of child's play. "And they weren't even that much in the end."

"That can also be said of you, can it not?" the governor said. "Legend says that you are bound by a curse."

His fourth knife, his last, soared under the governor's chin and landed by his neck. The thud echoed loudly across the governor's study chamber.

"Ah, that struck a nerve," the man said delicately, moving away from the wall, where his head would have been trapped by the thrown knives that nearly met their marks. "But that would mean it's true. Gypsies, whose magic artifact had fallen into the unsuspecting hands of many who subsequently grew doomed. The same can be said of you, innocent young boy who had once convinced his mother to buy it for him."

He had no knives to throw. He had no insults to hurl. The governor smirked at his frozen expression hidden behind strands of unruly black hair.

"And now you think you can find this little toy, the thing that bound you, and thus find the secret to being free? Boy, while my ancestors' blood still runs through those that are alive, you will not be free. And when they still live, they can kill you like the nothing that you are."

His hands shook, and he bled sweat and years of pain and anguish and tears and blood.

"An expensive tool, with no freedom and no escape. You are that toy soldier, and you will die a most bitter, solitary death."

Something snapped. Aurel flew at him in cold, cold rage.

It was not until he stood with death and blood written over his hands that he realized his last hope for release had been destroyed at his own will.

He would die with that man, because that man had died by him.

He turned around. His hands were shaking. The least he could do was leave this wretched place, leave behind the terror he had caused, and walk out into the cold winter and die a lonesome, peaceful death. But when he looked up, he froze mid-step and did not move.

Standing in the doorway was a young girl with black hair like ink and even darker eyes and pale skin like that of porcelain or perhaps white glass. She stared at him with listless wide eyes and he stared back, and suddenly it occurred to him that she had the governor's jet-black eyes.

Before Aurel could start breathing again, the girl slipped out of the doorway and had disappeared.

--

The palace of Morroc by night was looming, silent and slightly foreboding. Aurel stood on the roof, watching the stars wink in the deep night sky, and breathed a sigh.

He walked to the edge of the roof and knelt down. The drop was a sheer six stories, and the streets below were hard sandstone, strong enough to crush bones. The former he knew by research, and the latter by experience.

He gripped the smooth stone lip of the eaves and threw himself over.

Once he was standing on the thin stone ledge that ran under all of the sixth story windows, Aurel leaned against the walls and paused to consider. No matter how skilled or careful he was after eight years of this, he could not go on with a precarious balancing act along the perimeter of the palace and hope to live. So he was left with…

Offhandedly, he leaned slightly to his right and peered through the closed window. Then he drew back.

A moment later, he had a pocketknife at the lock of the window and was prying it open silently. He shuffled back along the ledge to let the shutters open all the way, and then he inched forward again and slipped deftly onto the windowsill.

The shutters creaked in the passing wind.

--

She was there.

The girl was swathed carefully into the folds of the bedspread, hair spilling every which way like a river of ink. Dim golden light from the lamp at her bedside cast a warm circle of light over the edge of her bed.

The doll was there as well, tucked under one arm and resting in the crook of her elbow. Small fingers, slender to the point of frailty, curled around the doll's shoulders.

Aurel stood beside the bed and stared.

If he killed her, he would have the rest of his life, and freedom.

His throat tightened painfully, testament to ten years of dwindling health and despair.

The face of the sleeping girl was soft and untroubled. The curve of her chin was delicate, and her eyelashes were thin and dark like the edges of silken fans.

There was hardly any hope for her, either.

Her hands were thin and almost bony, her lips pale and chapped. Aurel reached out and held his hand to her forehead. She was cold to the touch. He stood back and studied her again, carefully. She looked helpless.

How could he kill someone who was already destined to die?

--

Aurel stood on the windowsill, overlooking the rest of Morroc, and prepared to jump, when he made the mistake of hearing someone cough.

He made it worse by pausing, both hands gripping the shutters and poised to push.

And then he dug the hole deeper when he stood straight and turned around.

The girl was wide awake, staring at the doll in her arms with impassive surprise. Tied around its shoulders was a crimson ribbon, and from its feathered cap dangled a bell.

Aurel stood frozen in the window as she very carefully set the doll down on the covers.

"If you are leaving, then take me with you. I want to see Polaris one last time."

--

She would die at midnight.

He cradled her gingerly in his arms, as though she might fall into pieces at any moment, which could not be far from the truth. She clutched the doll firmly in both arms, and they trekked across the desert together, the wind blowing their footsteps away as soon as they made them.

"There," she whispered suddenly, breaking the silence, pointing forwards. He followed her indication and his eyes fell on the dark blur of what looked to be a small grove of palm trees, shielding a shallow pond.

He set her down gently on the sand when they reached the little oasis. The wind did not blow as fiercely under the shelter of the trees, and she could breathe easily.

"I don't know who you are," she confessed quietly, an arm curling around the doll.

"Aurel."

"You have a last name?"

"Mertense."

"Ah."

Her hands sifted through the sand.

"You left Prontera to move away from the snow?"

He stared at her. Her smile was slightly rueful.

She sighed and let her head tilt against the curve of the tree trunk.

"My name is Mariana. My mother thought it sounded pretty…I haven't talked to anyone aside from my maid for three years, so I wouldn't know what anyone else thought of it."

She smiled at him.

"What do you think?"

He bowed his head.

Mariana sighed and stretched her arms to the sky.

"I'm sorry…"

He cast her a sideways glance.

"I…haven't seen stars in years. I suppose…"

She looked imploringly at him.

"Would you carry me out to the sand?"

--

Aurel lifted her easily again; she was impossibly light. He fought against the roar of the wind and stumbled up the side of a sand dune, something he had gone through many times before. He laid her down gently at the summit and helped her sit up.

"I can see it now," she said, and lifted her hand to point.

Far above, nestled in the deep clouds, was a single bright star, winking gently.

"The North Star. It never moves."

Aurel sat down beside her. The wind rustled and whispered around them.

"My father was right. Life commands us like soldiers, and we are driven by things we must do and things we cannot let alone. And sometimes, when we are bound to a fate that we cannot control, we despair in thinking about all the things that we were never able to do."

Mariana held the doll tightly to her. Its grin seemed more of a leer.

"We don't realize that in the time we spend worrying over ourselves and others, we could be taking steps, however small, to help make our lives better."

She carefully untied the ribbon. The bell made a clear, tinny ring that was swept away in the wind.

"I don't think I'll be able to see the sun again," she said, smiling sadly. "But when I leave, you will not be bound to this anymore. Promise me that you will do everything you ever wanted to do, and do not hold back."

She was fading quickly, Aurel could tell. He helped her lay down, and placed the doll in her arms. She hugged it to her chest and sighed contentedly.

"I'm closing my eyes on the stars tonight," she said happily. "Would you admire the sun for me tomorrow?"

--

At midnight, Mariana closed her eyes. She was wearing the ribbon tied gently in her hair, and in her arms was the toy soldier.

She was smiling slightly as Aurel stood to leave. He returned the smile.

As he walked away, the first fingers of dawn crept slowly up the horizon.

* * *

WOW. That took a while XD. Had the idea swimming around for quite a bit, but didn't know how to voice it. Still, it came out alright. And, characteristic of anything I do, it's angst.

I hope you all enjoyed reading everything that we (the people over at Oh! Porings concocted). It took quite a bit of work getting updates here, because our muses are fickle and the plot bunnies kind of...died.

So, thanks to everyone who took the time to read this. Double thanks and a cookie to those who decided to review, and hugs to everyone in general 3. Happy Holidays, and have an excellent New Year, on behalf of the Porings! (and please excuse the super-long A/N x.x).


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